Fandom {We Are!! One Piece 1x1}

"I'm more concerned about you getting lost than I am with me getting hurt more," Julia grinned, looking in his direction with yet another teasing smirk. Hopefully she could get him to get off her back (even if it hurt like hell). She didn't need anyone worrying about her, that was for certain.

Sanji was internally freaking out, and he couldn't help but grin as he lead their way into the forest. After all, why shouldn't he be excited? He was with two gorgeous ladies and they were willingly following him... into the great unknown... no one else but him, Cynil, and Julia in the woods. Alone. He sighed happily, his head in the clouds as he blindly made their way into the forest.

"So... we don't get to talk much. Or at least we haven't yet," Julia started slowly, allowing Sanji to be in his own little world as he walked off in the lead. Her azure gaze looked down upon the smaller female--Julia was at least three to four inches taller than her--about a head taller if she was to estimate. She didn't know much about Cynil other than a few words from Zoro, but she wasn't sure she believed him. Supposedly the woman had been shot point blank and then got up and shook it off like it was nothing. Even the brunette struggled with recovery time, as seen by how she struggled with recovering from her own injuries. But someone coming back from the literal dead? Until she saw it with her own eyes, despite the weirdness that came with the Grand Line and a great wide world that she didn't fully know of, and she was born there! But until she saw it, she was going to struggle to believe it. (But then again she was also a hypocrite--she was a Fire Ogre for God's sake).

"I saw you reading earlier--not that I was watching you specifically or anything. I-I just noticed." The last thing she wanted was to come off as creepy. Cynil seemed to be one of the more calm and collected characters. While Nami sometimes scared Julia just because of how crazy long she held grudges and the high interest she kept on the debts that people owed her. She was lucky that she had paid off Zoro's debt to Nami before the female had started gaining interest. "I..." was this something she should tell her newest crew member. "I actually don't know how to read..." she mumbled, her face slowly turning almost as red as her demon form. "Th-there's a reason for that, though! I just... Oni write in an ancient text that premeditates common written language. I can read numbers and certain words but long paragraphs are... very difficult." So she wasn't completely illiterate... just mostly illiterate.

Unbeknownst to the Strawhats, that giants roamed this island, and the weeds of Baroque Works were already starting to choke out the life and gain their footholds on Little Garden...

As they walked, Sanji and the two females actually were able to discover some animals that seemed good to eat--a few... well, giant chickens. Some wild cattle, and the large fish that swam in Little Garden's main river was big and slow--perfect for catching without many issues. As they had amounted quite a feast, Sanji picked everything up in his hands, surprising both females with the strength in his noodle-like arms. "Alright ladies~! Please wait for me! I'm going to bring these back to the ship and then we'll all continue on this romantic stroll!"

Julia watched the blonde haired cook walk back the way they came with her brow furrowed. At least Sanji wasn't Zoro--it wasn't like him to get lost. An exasperated sigh left her lips as she shook her head, smiling back at Cynil. "Well, finally he's gone. Y'know I don't think I've ever hung out with... well, just girls. I've been surrounded by men my whole life. I was trained to be my father's successor from a young age by his crew mates, despite me being a girl... I was never really treated like one..." the brunette looked off into the distance at the small memory. She became distracted, however, when a dark shape passing through the trees caught her gaze. There, leaning against a tree, she recognized a familiar silhouette, the three swords at his belt being a clear indicator of who he was. Grinning, Julia took a step toward him, raising a hand in greeting. "Yo, Zoro! I didn't expect to bump into you, considering how lost you get all the time!" For some reason... warning bells were going off in the back of her head.

Cynil had to lift her head a bit to meet the other girl's gaze. She couldn't help but give a small chuckle. "If you want, I can help," She gave a single-shouldered shrug. "Can't vouch for how well it'd go, but I can try." Even though she wasn't extremely into books, they were what kept her distracted in her youth. Mostly the works of fiction; she found anything realistic a tad bit dull for her taste. Maybe because all the others were instructional books over things like military strategy that Deja made her and Sol go through time and time again until they could recite it almost word for word. Yeah, that might be why.

She lifted her hand, giving Sanji a small wave as he departed. "I know what that's like." Cynil laughed. "I didn't really know many others, they were people who worked for the lady that we lived with. A bunch of marines, and then me and my brother," She stared off in thought. "He never really treated me like a girl much either - we'd get into these fights, and he did not hold back." Another laugh, this one a bit louder and more open. "Lemme tell you, I lost every single one of those. Kicked my ass every time." She shook her head. While most would be hesitant to mention that their losses vastly outweighed their successes, Cynil was always happy to go into detail. Sol was, without a doubt, a prodigy on the battlefield. She had gotten it down to how long she could last - two minutes, thirty-six seconds. Their fights - spars and more childish ones - never lasted any longer than that.

At the mention of Zoro, Cynil lifted her head. She looked curiously into the distance, making out the figure not too far off. As Julia greeted him, she squinted and tried to focus more on the figure. That was weird. Normally, when you called someone's name, you got some sort of reaction out of them - a form of acknowledgment or something. Maybe he was distracted, or saw something? The closer they got, however, the less she thought that. No person stood that still. That was like...like a statue -

"Doru Doru no Mi -"

The voice cut through, Cynil whipping around. She went to move, back up or just get out of there, but her feet were - they were stuck? The feeling of something warm but offering her no space engulfed her feet. She stared down with alarmed eyes to see a white substance - wax? - up to her calves. She tried to force her way out, but, alas, it seemed to harden almost instantly and didn't let her budge an inch. Great.

A man stepped out from where he had been hidden, a smug smile on his face as he stared down at them. "Two more fall into my trap," He chuckled. "Don't feel bad - it's only natural for you to fall for it; a genius plan that only I could conceive, truly." He was just so humble. "A burden, to be as clever as I, but one I carry dutifully." Cynil felt the itching need to reach over and punch him square in his face. If only he'd get just a bit closer.

"Now, wait here patiently for my return," He declared, clasping his hands together. "I shall attend to the more...disruptive ones and then come back for you, alright?" He smiled a smile that made the need to pummel his face sky rocket. Wait - "the more disruptive ones"? There were others? Cynil could only imagine it was the others of their crew, but who? But blowing up now would only make things worse...probably. Just keep calm.

"And what are we waiting so patiently for, might I ask?" Her face was as confident as ever, her voice cool and composed. He regarded her for a moment before seeming to decide the information wasn't too important to be kept secret.

"For art, of course!" He grinned. He motioned towards himself. "I am Mr. 3, and I shall make each and every one of you into perfect sculptures, don't you worry." He turned, and set off. Cynil could only watch him walk off, nothing else she could say seemed to make him linger.

She glanced over to Julia, clicking her tongue. "So," She started. "Human sculptures, huh?" She let out a low whistle at the thought. "Kinda messed up, dont'cha think?"

Julia's eyes widened at Cynil's good-humored chuckle, and she looked to the shorter female for a moment before a smile broke out upon her lips. "You... you'd do that for me? I mean..." she became shy after a second, and she bit her lip, looking down. "It might be like teaching a child how to read. I-I know very little of the common alphabet. As I said, just numbers..." It was one of her most embarrassing realities--the fact that she absolutely did not know how to read the commonly written language.

Julia barely noticed Sanji leave, though she did wave goodbye to the cook. She had more faith in him returning to them than a certain potted plant... but her focus was on the black haired beauty beside her as they stood in the jungle. The temperature surrounding them was moderate--not to cool, not too hot--and was altogether pleasant. Nami and Usopp might have been freaked out by the giant plants and animals that lived on the island, but out of all of them, they did tend to be the ones classified as "scaredy-cats". Sighing, the female shook her head and continued on listening to the dancer beside her as they--surprisingly enough--related quite a lot to each other. Julia nodded along with Cynil's story. It seemed like her childhood had been rather unique as well, and that was comforting to the Oni. As far as the other Strawhat crew members, they each grew up in very unique circumstances, but Cynil's sounded a little bit closer to what Julia was used to. The brunette cracked a small smile at her talk of her brother. "My dad is a big guy. And by big, I mean BEAR. He's also one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet. He's kind, generous, but sincere, serious, and willing to put work in every time. He and I used to spar all the time--and he always kicked my ass, so I can relate to that."

Speaking of Zoro earlier... Julia stepped forward, but her brow furrowed as he refused to respond to her call. He wasn't... mad at her for some reason, right? She tried to wrack her mind for a reason as to why he might be mad at her, but her most recent offenses didn't seem to warrant the silent treatment. However, she had just gotten close enough to realize that Zoro was actually a wax figurine in his likeness when Doru Doru no Mi was spoken aloud, and the female swore under her breath as she struggled, trying to escape as her legs became encased in wax. Looking at Cynil behind her, the female felt her feet moving closer to the female as whoever was manipulating the wax put them side by side. She glared at the rather stupid looking (honestly she was surprised, upset, and that was legitimately the only PG insult rattling around in her brain) male with a glare. Who did he think he was? The brunette continued to struggle as she let Cynil do the talking for them--it worked perfectly for her anyway, Julia considered herself a bit of a brute, in true Oni fashion.

Growling more insults under her breath as he waltzed away, she frowned, wondering just who it was that Mr. 3 was either planning on capturing or had already captured. Cynil's voice caused the female to look up, and she furrowed her brow again. "Now that you mention it... yeah, that's totally messed up." Tilting her head, the Rigger wondered exactly what it was that Mr. 3 was looking for in his 'art'. "And if you think about it, if he's using our bodies in order to turn us into Wax Dolls, doesn't that technically make him a tracer? I get it if you're just starting out, but honestly it's cheating and unoriginal." Surprising that something so educated-sounded could come out of the brunette's mouth, but that's just what happened. "Now... let's see if I can get out of this..." she mumbled, closing her eyes. She called upon the fire in her belly--the one that allowed her to transform, but despite all of her concentration... nothing happened. Gasping for breath, as she realized she hadn't been breathing during that time, Julia hunched slightly, putting her hands on her knees as she winced. "O-Okay, I literally do not have enough energy to melt this wax." She cracked her neck, biting her lip again as she thought. "I'm a fire ogre... so my core body temperature is naturally a little bit warmer. I think maybe I could slip out of this wax in..." she deadpanned. "I don't know, four hours give or take. He probably would reinforce the wax by the time it was malleable enough for me to escape, though..." She can't say she didn't try. "Do you think my nails would work?"

Cynil nodded, intrigued by her companion. "Never heard of that, but you kinda expect that from the Grand Line, right?" She chuckled. "But don't worry about it, you seemed pretty roughed up when I hopped aboard." She glanced down at the wax that kept the both of them stuck in place. It was hard, real hard. She crouched down, staring at where her legs disappeared into the white. there was a little room - enough to fit a finger in - from where she squirmed while it hardened. She scratched her cheek in contemplation, staring intently.

"Do your nails have something that I don't know about?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "Cause, from what I can tell, if I tried scratching my way out, it'd take hours for me to even make a dent; at that point, I imagine my nails would be broken and tearing off or something." She gave a low hum, scanning their surroundings. It was when her eyes landed on a rock that she felt a semblance of some plan taking form. It wasn't great, but it was something. "Not to mention, if you use your fire here, then you won't have that much power when we see that guy again, right? Best to conserve and figure out another way. I mean, every little bit counts, yeah?"

She reached over, having to stretch to grab the thing, before pulling it to her. She stared a moment, before sighing - no matter what way she looked at it, this would take some time. "You got any rocks or something near you? Cause I imagine we can use this; hit the hell out of this, take out small chunks. I imagine you'd get out before me - not really strong myself, so won't be able to work as quickly." Cynil shook her head at herself. "Let's try not to smash our fingers, yeah?"

And so her little "plan" went underway. Not really much of a plan, to be honest, just a simple course of action. Better than just sitting around and waiting for that guy to return, though. Time ticked by, her fingers red and her hand - not hurting - but felt...tingly? It was hard to describe. But she dropped the rock she so diligently worked away with. She had thinned the spot right between her feet enough that she could start using her hands to begin breaking away pieces. They weren't large chunks by any means, but they would have to do.

"You know, I didn't have many thoughts on what we'd be doing in this place," Cynil rolled her shoulder, picking a bit of wax that managed to get caught beneath her nail out. "But I can guarantee that this definitely wasn't one of em'. In fact, wax wasn't anywhere near what I was thinking." She gave a sigh as she left enough of an opening to get her feet out. Forcing one was easy, but the opening for her right wasn't quite as big. She had to force her leg out, scraping it against some of the more jagged edges she left behind. She frowned when she looked at the white smudges along her boots, rubbing at them with her finger. It'd come out, but she still wasn't very pleased about it.

She stretched her arms up, switching her weight from foot to foot. It felt nice to actually be able to move again. "Now, whaddya say we go see how the others are doing?" She placed her hands at her hips, grin on her face. Might as well, right? It was that or go back to the ship. Her curiosity was too great to ignore this though.

Julia shrugged--it really didn't matter anyway, what was most important at the moment was somehow escaping the wax that imprisoned them. She was sore and injured but definitely not incapable. That was probably the nature of her hubris, unfortunately. Julia was often so damn proud that she didn't want to come off as weak--there was no way she'd let someone take care of her simply because it was her goal not to become a burden to anyone. She didn't want to feel like she was getting in the way, and she never wanted to feel weak. She had done enough self loathing on that island, and she blamed herself every day for the mutiny of her crew. That was already enough weight on anyone's shoulders.

"They're tougher than a human's, that's for sure," Julia stated calmly, wincing and biting her lip as she bent over to try and scratch away at the wax. It scored deep claw marks into the semi-hard material, but it wasn't too wide. The demoness sighed, her eyes narrowing. This might take awhile, just like Cynil had said. "You're right. I don't need a rock, but I won't waste too much energy here. Now... let's get digging."

Cynil's plan was a good one--the fact of the matter was that no matter how hard you tried, it was going to take awhile to get them out of the solid wax surrounding their feet. Julia had half a mind to slash through her legs instead but thought better of it--that would be a dumb idea. She was already cursing the fact that she had left her sword on the ship, but of course... Sanji had been with them at the time, and she had been relying on the fact that if someone came and bothered them, Sanji would have taken care of it. Speaking of which... "I wonder where everyone else is... hopefully not captured by that wax freak," Julia spoke, feeling her legs begin to shift in their waxy prisons. It looked like she was close. Her fingers were starting to hurt, but she wasn't about to stop or complain about it. Finally getting a foot free, she silently celebrated as freeing the other one turned out to be easier than she had initially thought. The brunette then turned to look at Cynil, seeing if there was anyway she could help, but the blackette had already seemingly freed herself. Huh. Maybe Julia should have stopped being so stubborn and listened to her fully?

But where was the fun in that?

"I say, that sounds like a wonderful idea!" Julia grinned, smiling at Cynil before pausing to listen. Her hearing was better than an average human's, but not by much, and it was typically only amplified when in demon form. "I think I hear commotion this way? Eh... it's not that big of an island I'm sure we'll come across something!" Thinking to herself, she began to walk in the direction that she had been facing, 'it's better than staying here and waiting for that creep to return...'

It wasn't long before they found a clearing where everyone had gathered. There was a giant... birthday cake? Pumpkin? Julia stared with narrowed eyes, seeing Nami, Zoro, and Vivi trapped in wax underneath the spinning top. Zoro looked like an idiot, posing with a sword in the air, and both women were coughing up a storm. Did she hear him say something about turning them into wax figures from the inside out? That was scary. And luffy seemed to be having a tea party with a child. Huh.

Strolling over casually, Julia picked up the child under the arms, whom she would later find out was Miss Golden Week, and looked blankly at Luffy. "This child giving you trouble, captain?"

"Julia?" Vivi immediately fell into a coughing after calling out for her.

"And Cynil! Get Luffy off of those marks!" Nami shouted. "And then get us down from heree!!"

"Hey," the child was surprisingly calm as she turned to look back at the woman holding her. "Why aren't my runes affecting you?"

Julia gave her a blank stare back. "Yeah, your paint magic works on humans. Last time I checked, I'm not a human, so..."

Cynil stared up at the large wax...thing, and let out a low whistle. "That's definitely something." She said. "Don't really know what it is, but it's something. Don't think there's any clawing out of that." She glanced over to where Julia was holding a child. She started making her way over to the large wax creation, leaving the kid to Julia's care. It seemed the runt was the cause of their current problems - while Julia took care of that, she could try and figure out how to help those three out.

Before she could make it to them, she caught the sight of a large...man? A very, very large man. She froze, staring with slightly widened eyes. He was also incapacitated by the wax like they had been. She stared up at him, and she felt very, very small. Smaller than usual. She had to shake her head and continue on; the others needed help. "What happened?" Cynil called up as she approached the base of the statue.

"Get that green mark off of him!" Nami hollered down. "It's what's keeping him there - it's on his jacket!" Cynil turned, staring off at the captain of the crew. As Nami had said, there was a large, green painted thing on him.

"You got that, Julia?" . Out of the corner of Cynil's eye, she saw Usopp riding Carue emerge from the treeline. There were two people chasing after him, a man and a woman - Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine. "Hey, look out!" She hollered, pointing over. She had already gone too far to do any pushing, and damn they were fast.

Zoro glanced towards the two girls he was trapped with, raising an eyebrow. "You two better think up a cool pose," He said. "Don't want you statue to look like that, do you?" He looked down at the chaos below them. "Hey!" He called out. "You guys should hurry it up with the rescue." But, if they didn't make it in time, he was prepared. At least he wouldn't look all scared like those two.

"I guess we have to trust them to save us now, huh?" Vivi's voice was quiet, her body stiff and unmoving as more of the wax hardened against her.

Zoro would've nodded, but he couldn't move either. "Yep." He answered. "Cause I can't move my arms." As annoying as it was to die before becoming the world's greatest swordsman, there was nothing else he could do. It was all up to the others to get the three of them out of this mess. He didn't really have any fears over it, though - he knew that they'd figure out something. They always seemed to, after all.

Julia really wasn't the best with kids--not that she ever claimed to be or anything. Children in general back in her village liked to use her as their own personal jungle gym, and no matter how much she yelled at them they loved hanging around her. Still, maybe that was why this kid didn't seem to be very concerned. How did she even get into Baroque Works? ... and how was she the female companion for Mr. 3?!! Questions that the world would never really get the answers to...

Julia turned and saw the giant, and her jaw nearly hit the forest floor. "What the... how long has he been here?!" Carue and Usopp arrived about that time, and gave both Julia and Cynil's surprised looks a raised eyebrow.

"Really? There's two giants. They're from the giant island, Elbath! They fight when that volcano explodes. It's happened twice already?" Usopp answered, and Julia's eyebrows knitted together in frustration. Seriously? When??!

There was a lot going on--Luffy was drinking tea despite the fact that Julia was holding the little girl. Usopp was running around with the giant duck, and Mr. 3, Mr. 5, and Miss Valentine were all spouting a bunch of nonsense and it was all just slowly rising to a white noise. All she could do was keep Miss Golden Week from making more runes. That was important, and about all she could handle right now. She grimaced as Usopp was beat up, and she called out to Cynil. "Hey, Cynil! Come pull luffy off of this mark! Be careful not to touch it yourself."

There was more skirmishing, and as they fought, Julia found her eyes turning back up to the pumpkin like thing. Zoro... was posing? "You dumbass don't give up hope yet!" She called out, her hands covering Miss Golden Week's ears while she swore before correcting her hold on the child.

"Are you going to let me down, or...?"

"Nope," she replied, over-enunciating the 'p' as she did so.

Before she knew it, Luffy was back on his feet, Mr. 3 was running away, and all the wax was on fire. Feeling it was safe to set her down, Julia put the child on the ground, and watched her calmly walk off, before she turned back to see Zoro, Nami, and Vivi, all three alive (thankfully) and mainly in one piece. The brunette walked up to the green haired male, noticing his legs and how he had attempted to cut through them. "You're an idiot, you know that, right?" She growled in annoyance. She really wasn't one to talk, but she didn't know how to be worried about him while saving face--her damn pride acting out for her again. "Can you even walk? Honestly what kind of an idiot thinks to saw off their legs?" Well she had for a split second...

"Thanks Cynil," Luffy grinned, turning to his dancer (who he, of course, had assumed joined their crew. He had a pretty one track mind and had already mostly forgotten about the fact that her allegiance was temporary). "That tea was really delicious... but it was stupid how I couldn't save my friends! I'm glad you and Jules were here." He gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder before going over to check on Usopp and Carue along with Vivi.

"Hey, where's," Nami paused to cough again, "where did Sanji go?" It's true, they had left him in the middle of the forest or something. He had left to go bring the ingredients back to the ship, but who knows where he had gotten off to.

After everything had gone down - she had relegated herself mostly to the sidelines of the chaos unless told to do something - Cynil jogged over to the others. She froze, eyes widening partially at the unexpected physical contact on her shoulder. Her head whipped to see what had just touched her only to meet the gaze of the smiling captain. She did her best to play it off, pulling her usual "charming" smile but it twitched and wasn't quite as wide. She looked at the three; they all almost seemed relatively fine. Almost. The green-haired one, Zoro, had some nasty gashes along his ankles. Might as well offer some help. She nodded to him.

"I can stitch those for you," Cynil said, though paused upon hearing Julia's comment. He tried to...what? Well, wasn't really her place to judge, but still. "Just need to find a needle." She scratched her cheek and glanced around. Wasn't like one would spontaneously appear out here. The swordsman in question regarded her with a frown as he stood tall. Blood gushed from the open wounds as he did so.

He narrowed his eyes. "I'm fine." Zoro stated. He could walk this off - the sting that shot through his legs caused him to visibly wince (something he was, admittedly, a bit embarrassed of) and clench his teeth. Vivi gave an incredulous look to the swordsman.

"C'mon, take her help! You really need it after trying to pull that." She gestured towards his legs.

At the mention of the blonde haired cook, the others all stopped in place. Their stares landed on Cynil and Julia. "We were with him, but..." Her voice trailed off. "I guess we did kinda disappear, didn't we?" Cynil looked over to Julia, chuckling awkwardly. It wasn't like they meant to ditch him. They just got distracted...and then stuck...which led them here. Alright, so they could've gone back, but they didn't. No point in feeling bad over it now.

Nami looked down at the log on her wrist, waving to get their attention. "Hey guys!" She called. "The log has set - it's time for us to get a move on." Her face twisted in momentary discomfort before shrugging it off. At the questioning gaze of the blue-haired princess she shrugged. "Bug bite."

"Aww," Luffy whined loudly. "We have to go already have to go?" He pouted. He was answered with a swift strike to the top of his head from the navigator. She glared at him. "You idiot! We have to get to Alabasta as soon as possible!" She yelled down at him, giving a huff and rolling her eyes.

Reaching up Julia winced at her own wounds--she really was being a hypocrite, what with the bone damage--grabbing Zoro by his ear that wasn't pierced and pull his head down to her level (she was a few good inches shorter than him after all). "You'd better take her offer, Zoro!" She wasn't about to have the idiot lose the use of his legs. She let go of his ear, sighing as she shook her head. "What are we gonna do with you if you keep injuring yourself?" At least Julia's injuries weren't self-inflicted.

In the meantime, Luffy had paid literally no mind to Cynil's discomfort. After all, he wasn't a complete idiot all the time, but he was oblivious. Instead, he walked over to the giants as the Broggy cried over the previously-thought-dead-Dorry. He held his hands over his ears as if that would do much of any good, the other Strawhats wincing at the giant's loud tears. "Hey, giant guy! Stop crying would ya, it hurts!"

"S-Sorry, I'm just so relieved!" He sniffled, but luckily his tears stopped running and all of the crew members could put down their hands. A conversation ensued between some of the crew members, but Julia was no longer paying attention.

Groaning to herself, the brunette leaned against a tree--she had never really felt overexertion like this before. Sure, she trained a lot as a kid, sometimes even to the point where moving was hard, but never impossible. It just seemed that she had never really pushed her limits. Well... between that and her mother freaking out on her whenever she returned home beaten and bruised. Before her mother... well, that was another story. Closing one eye, the oni demoness shrugged her collared-cape more onto her shoulders, feeling a sudden chill. Just what was going on today?

Julia looked at Cynil, sharing her nervous laughter--they hadn't intentionally ditched Sanji at least. Sighing, she looked down, shaking her head, until a familiar voice called out to them from the treeline.

"NAMI, VIVI, JULIA, CYNIL!!!" A certain blonde haired cook rushed in from the forest. "Did you all miss me? I was so worried when I tried to find you all and couldn't find the same clearing!" He paused, suddenly seeing the giants. His eyes went wide in shock and surprise, but luckily Usopp quickly explained what happened before Sanji could fully freak out about the situation. "I see... well, everyone gather around, because I have some news to tell as well."

Long story short, in order to get everything out of the way and to advance the story ine (whoops let me just put that fourth wall back up, sorry 'bout that):

Sanji told Crocodile that the Strawhats had been killed along with the Princess using Mr. 3's Den Den Mushi. The giants helped give their ship a huge boost of speed so that they might cross the ocean faster, and put them ahead of schedule. Instead of using the Log Pose, Sanji had found an Eternal Pose for Alabasta in Mr. 3's hut, but Nami fell grievously ill (to which Julia added a sarcastic 'dropping like flies' reference). She still somehow managed to Navigate them through a cyclone, only to meet some weird ass King who tried to eat the Going Merry. Luffy kicked his ass and they found themselves on Drum Island in search of a doctor. (Man, weren't they lucky that the Going Merry had extra winter clothes in the hull?). There was a bit of a rough start with the locals, considering one of them actually shot Vivi, but after she convinced them to allow them to find a doctor for Nami, they were all allowed to set foot on land. A man known as Dalton was their leader and he agreed, after Luffy apologized, to bring them to the doctor who was supposed a witch.

"Alright, who's going with?" Luffy turned, looking to the others with a curious head tilt.

"We'll carry Nami," Usopp and Sanji agreed, carrying the poor sick girl on a thin, firm tatami mat.

"Cynil?" Sanji asked, turning to the young woman. "Are you coming with?"

"Zoro, watch the ship, will ya?" Luffy asked with a grin, getting off on the gangplank that Dalton had provided.

"I'll stay here too," Julia suddenly announced, and the company looked to her in shock. The brunette was wrapped in at least three blankets and a coat, shivering drastically.

"I thought you were a fire demon?!!" Usopp nearly screeched, and she shrugged. "I g-guess that means I-I can't h-handle intense cold?" Dalton looked to her suspiciously, as though he recognized her, before mentally shaking it off.

"Follow me," he spoke firmly, leading the others on the trek through the snow to the village, and incidentally, Dr. Kureha, the Witch.

After the events on Little Garden transpired, Cynil had made herself a little less scarce than she had been. It was easier to approach the crew of the ship, namely Julia and Zoro - the latter was because she had to keep his stitchings in check, though it wasn't like they had much to talk about other than that. So, she often relegated her time to her when no one else commanded her attention. In fact, she actually found that they had quite a few things in common. However, she still slaved away over her little book. As time wore on, she neared the end. Serogi had set it up almost like a scavenger hunt within the pages - search for all the clues and put them together. It wasn't until they neared Drum Island that she found them all.

And a part of her wished she hadn't.

It was directions. While no one knew how to find Phantom - he was an enigma - there was one person who got close, and continued to get even closer. One she knew well. Deja Nicros. It seemed this "Phantom" had begun to almost wage his one-man war on her a few years ago, and she has been chasing after him ever since. It seemed that, while she got near, she never got him - or a face. This discovery also shed light on why Serogi worked so hard to hide things. Deja didn't like her name crossing papers, especially without her approval. She had an army of spies, and you never knew where they were; it was best to remain unaware to them to be honest.

And that was what led her to zoning out as all the guns that had previously been trained on them were lowered. She heard her name, pulling her back to reality. "Huh?" She blinked, looking up at the blonde. "Oh, sure, guess I'll go." She shrugged. Might as well do something, right? Beat sitting around here, her mind stuck on her old caretaker and how she was going to approach her. Not to mention it didn't tell how to find her. Damn it.

They were with the group of militiamen who were previously ready to shoot them down, following them to their village. Cynil tugged the jacket Nami had allowed her to borrow closer, pulling more into herself. It was freezing, and that was an understatement. She didn't have any clothes - her hopping aboard the ship was very spur of the moment, and didn't give her time to think of things like that. While it was a bit long on her, it otherwise fit well enough. In fact, she was happy since then the sleeves covered her hands. It was this moment she realized.

She hated the cold.

--------

Zoro watched the others leave, standing they disappeared one by one until it was just him, Carue, and Julia. He turned, looking over to Julia's shivering form. It was a sad sight, but, to be fair, she was in a bad state. She was still hurt from before (their need for a doctor was beginning to rear its head then), and fire and ice didn't really mix well, right? And she was a fire demon. So, obviously, she wouldn't do well in the cold because of that.

In his mind, that made sense.

"Hey," Zoro spoke up, giving her a stern look. "get back inside - don't need you dyin' from the cold out here." He was sure Nami wouldn't mind her using her bed while she was away. While he knew the girl to be rather difficult, she wasn't a bad person - just challenging to deal with. To him, at least. He turned, looking around. "I'll stay out here with the bird and keep watch." He really meant he was going to train longer. His feet, while still sore, were actually healing not too bad. Enough that he could start up again; he had time to make up for after Little Garden.

Luffy and Dalton lead the way back to Dalton's village--after all, the large man knew the way, and Luffy was far too preoccupied at staring excitedly at his surroundings to recognize the fact that he would often pull ahead of Dalton, but it never became an issue. Their captain might have been a bit of a dunce, but could at least tell general direction, considering other crew members lacked some of that sense... It didn't take them that long to arrive at Dalton's house, and he finally introduced himself as the leader of the Island's militia men. Nami was increasingly getting worse, and after discussion about the island's supposed "witch" of a doctor, Dr. Kureha, it was decided that their navigator had no time to lose.

"Nami, hey Nami," Luffy spoke, tapping the orange haired female's face surprisingly gently.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Usopp, Vivi, and Sanji all cried out, glaring at their captain. Seriously, Nami didn't deserve this kind of abuse!

"The only doctor on this island lives on a mountain. I'm going to carry you up there." Luffy's face was serious as he looked down upon his ailing navigator, and Nami smiled weakly, knowing that she had to get better as quickly as possible. If not for her crew's sake, then for Vivi's sake and the country of Alabasta.

"Alright, I'll l-leave it to you, captain," Nami spoke weakly.

Sanji sighed, "I guess it can't be helped, though I do think it will be even more dangerous to move her..." the cook was torn. On one hand he wanted to be the one to carry Nami, but he also knew that with Luffy's abilities, she was actually probably safer with Luffy--not to mention with his unyielding energy the journey would probably be a lot swifter as well. Turning to face Cynil, the cook shot her a concerned look. "I can't ask you to come with us all the way to the top of that mountain," he spoke softly, putting his hands in the pockets of his coat. "But I can't stop you from following us either. As much as I would feel like you would be much safer here with Dalton," the militia man nodded as Sanji narrowed his eyes at him. Safer, as in... he didn't try anything funny while they were gone! He turned his head back to continue his train of thought. "In the end it is your decision on what you want to do. I don't want you to feel like you have to come with us."

"You should watch out for the rabbits," Dalton said offhandedly, and Luffy tilted his head at that statement.

"Rabbits? Uh... alright?" After Nami was tied to Luffy's back in a piggy-back position, the crew was ready to move out. They needed to find Dr. Kureha, or face losing their navigator!


Julia had been happy that Cynil seemed to be a little bit closer after their time spent on Little Garden. The brunette found the blackette quite an enjoyable personality, even if she never said it out loud. Also, she was just about ready to ask her to start teaching her how to read. How embarrassing was that, that she simply couldn't read! If Zoro found out he'd never let her live it down (or he'd actually be surprisingly understanding, but Julia wasn't about to take that 50/50 challenge).

She watched the others leave the ship, her concerned gaze following Usopp and Sanji as they carried poor Nami off and away. Biting her lip, the female felt her teeth chattering again as she snuggled deeper into the blankets, her head perking up as Zoro addressed her. After all, who else could he be talking to? The duck? Julia liked Carue but he was still a little scared after having seen her demon form. It was whatever. Besides, his deep brown, almost black eyes were blatantly glaring at her, and she raised an eyebrow in contention. "Y-you don't think I c-can handle a little bit of c-cold?" Her voice stammered, but she refused to back down. A part of her knew that Zoro was just speaking from a sense of wanting to make sure she didn't end up worse off than she already was, but now... this was about pride (or wasn't it always about pride? One or the other). She scoffed, watching him with her cerulean gaze closely, "I'm staying out here, if for no other reason than to beat your ass if you rip open the stitches Cynil bothered to give you." She could blame it on anything she wanted, but at the end of the day Julia respected Zoro, and legitimately cared about him as a fellow crew mate and friend. She was worried about him more-so than she was worried about herself, which was a common issue with the female. She didn't take good care of herself because of a certain amount of unbidden apathy for her own well-being.

"A little c-c-cold won't kill me, mossy."

Cynil had followed behind most of everyone, trailing diligently. She had kept herself to the side, silently watching. Stay? There was a part of her that wanted to - she felt out of place and awkward about tagging along. However, she'd be damned if she let that keep her to twiddling her thumbs. Besides, she felt bad; despite the navigator being in such a condition, she was still stuck thinking about how damned attractive this Dalton guy was. She'd rather not be the one to do something like hit on him while there was some sort of crisis like this going on. First, at least - she'd wait for someone else then pick it up herself.

"I'll tag along," She said it before she gave herself a chance to think it over. If she did, then she'd have stayed. "Beats sitting around. Also, your captain is leaving while you're talking to me, so..." Her voice trailed off as she side stepped around him and started following behind. She had grown to like Nami; the girl, despite being a tad bit difficult, was nice at heart. She'd rather see her up there herself. On the off chance something bad happened, then she could probably make her way through with her "enhanced resilience" and have an easier time doing it than them. Not to mention it just sorta felt like she owed it to her.

----

Zoro's eye twitched, giving his crewmate an intense stare before shaking his head. "Fine, do what you want." He waved it off, turning to continue his training. There was a part of him that felt a tick of annoyance with her stubbornness - she was going to get herself killed, damnit! - but he knew that, in the end, he had no control over the matter. He wasn't about to physically drag her in there; wasn't his place to do that.

Time seemed to meander by as he went through his usual routines. Most of what he did was for overall strength enhancement - it was almost like meditating at this point. Though, he imagined it'd be best to switch things up, right? They were surrounded by freezing cold water; that was a bit of a rarity for them, as most island temperatures leaned towards the hotter side of the spectrum. He heard that swimming through such water helped with overall fitness and mental fortitude. With yet another shrug to himself, he kicked his shoes off and tugged off his shirt. He'd like to have some warm(ish?) clothes to get back to.

"I'll be right back," Zoro said over his shoulder before diving off the side without hesitation. It was a shock to his system; while the air had been cold, this was so much more. It was like his body locked up for a moment, and, as he resurfaced, he visibly shivered. "A-alright," He was muttering to himself through chattering teeth. "I-i-it's not t-that bad. Just-t gotta get m-moving!" A lot of cold was just in your head. If you could convince yourself, you could reduce how cold you were!...but that only worked to a small extent.

Diving back under the water, he used the ship to launch himself off and start swimming. Not too far from the ship, he knew better than to stray. If he stayed close, though, he could find it without a doubt! As he resurfaced, he looked over his shoulder and -...

...

...Where was the Going Merry? He froze, but not because of the water. Dammit, how the hell did he manage to!? He didn't even go that far! At least it didn't feel like he did. What turn did he make? And here he was without his shirt or shoes in freezing water. Growling to himself, he took himself to the nearest shore. Snow crunched beneath his feet, and it felt almost like a weird freezing burn. At least he had his swords, though. Now he just needed to find his way back. Which way was that?...Left. It was probably left. If he moved in a straight line, then left was behind him.

"No, definitely right."

Sanji chuckled at Cynil's response, her casual demeanor significantly lifting his mood despite the fear over Nami's health. The cook nodded slowly, turning back to face the mountains along with everyone else. "How did I know you would say that?" Honestly he hadn't known the blackette for long--the more he thought about this, the more he was reminded that, well... in reality he knew very little about Cynil, and yet for some reasons some of her responses and habitual every-day things never really came as a surprise to him. Maybe it came from living in the same close quarters every single day and night, being on the Merry together. Whatever it was, he was silently grateful for it. Cynil didn't seem to be the type to open up, and the last thing the chef wanted was for him to pry too deep, and her to stop talking to him in fear of deep and personal questions.

"We'll stay back here," Vivi said, smiling slightly as the group of them moved outside, looking at them as they all faced off against the giant mountains. Honestly, what was with this landscape?

"Yes! Someone's got to protect Vivi! We'll wait for you here," Usopp said, though his brave speech was demeaned by how much his teeth were chattered through the entire thing--he was shaking not unlike a leaf.

"Alright, we'll see you guys after we've met the doctor!" Luffy called, grinning before turning around and immediately taking off at the speed of rubber.

"Luffy, wait up!" Sanji growled, beginning to run. "Come on, Cynil, let's go!" As they ran up the snowy mountainside, they made for some casual conversation, though their pace didn't slow. They were all in agreement, whether they had spoken about it out loud or not--Nami really needed to see a doctor as quick as possible, and so their pace remained swift.

As Sanji and Luffy argued over dumb (and completely false) cold-climate facts, they were nearly completely oblivious to the rabbits that were leaping to-and-fro around them, until one ran in Sanji's way after he was particularly mad for Luffy calling him stupid. "Get the hell outta here already!" Immediately after he kicked the rabbit, he regretted it, as out of the falling snow emerged giant bear-like-rabbits, and his face paled.

"Sanji, you shouldn't have kicked the bunny," Luffy pouted as their pace came to an abrupt halt.

"Don't you think I know that?" He was angry at himself and at his captain for letting him distract him. "Cynil, stay behind me. This is... admittedly my fault."







Still wrapped in blankets and shivering up a storm, the brunette stuck her tongue out at him, but a snowflake landed there, and her attention turned to the sky. The day had already been pretty dreary and overcast, which seemed to compliment the semi-somber mood of the Strawhat crew, but as snow gently fell on the deck of the ship, she hummed softly to herself. It was like rain... but snow. Julia had only ever seen snow on the tips of mountains on her home island, so to see it falling from the sky made her feel a bit like a little kid. Of course, they had a winter village on Oni Island, but Julia had never been allowed to visit during the colder months due to the fact that as a Fire Oni, she wouldn't do too well in the more drastic sides of a snow storm. She vaguely heard Zoro call out to her before hearing a splash, and her attention snapped back to the deck of the ship.

"Zoro?" Her voice started out quietly, but as her eyebrows narrowed in concern, she slowly shuffled over to the deck of the ship. "Zoro, where are you?" Her heart nearly froze. Surely he didn't... as she scanned the water, she saw no sign of him, but Carue the duck was freaking out. "Calm down," she told the bird, her teeth refusing to chatter as she grit her jaw in worried annoyance. If that man thought she was stubborn... then he was an idiot! She moved toward the gangplank, blankets draped around her form, mittens on, and a hat obscuring most of her face, but Carue stood in front of her. "I have to go find Zoro, duck! He's gonna die once he realizes that he is, inevitably, lost, and tries to get out on the shore and walk back!" However the duck shook its head and used a wing to motion towards the saddle on its back. That too, seemed like a bad idea.

Julia smiled at the duck's courage. "No, Carue, you have to stay and guard the Merry. I'll go bring Zoro back! Don't you worry!" Though her confidence was false as she began to doubt herself. The swordsman's words echoed in her mind. Was she really too unwell to go looking for him? No, she tried to convince herself she was fine! Stepping off of the Merry, Carue's worried gaze upon her form, the bundled-up Julia strode off into the woods in search for a troublesome swordsman, the falling snow no longer seeming as fascinating as it was deadly.

Listening to arguments - especially when both sides were utterly wrong - was something that could always entertain; it almost made her forget about the biting cold. Almost. Cynil trekked alongside the two diligently, somewhat glad for Deja and her "harsh weather training" otherwise she would've fallen behind. The snow was about reaching above her ankle, forcing her to lift her feet up as they traveled up an incline. She still wasn't used to the exertion, but she could get over it.

And that was when the rabbit incident happened. She had been somewhat aware of their presence, Dalton's warning lingering in her mind until she brushed it aside. Rabbits? These ones? They seemed utterly harmless. However, upon one of the rabbits being punted a distance away, out came the larger and more intimidating ones. Her shoulders slumped as she had to crane her neck to stare up at the thing. Her eyes went wide, attempting to blink away her shock but it remained steadfast. It was a cruel misuse of the word "rabbit" to refer to these as them. Though, there was something familiar about them. She was certain she heard her dad bring it up, but that information had long since left her mind. Did it? Maybe she could remember...

Hearing her name brought her out of her distracted state. "Yeah, no problem," She quickly moved behind the taller blonde. She probably should've stayed in front what with her ability to practically absorb attacks, but, on another look at the ferocious looking rabbits around, she stuck to her decision.

It was the understanding that, stopping here, meant the inevitable death of the navigator that pushed the captain to dart forwards. Luffy clenched his teeth, grinding them with a look of anger across his face. He couldn't fight - he couldn't. Moving around like that, dealing with multiple opponents as other of these beastly rabbits showed up, would just put her at a risk that shouldn't even be attempted. Thankfully, he understood this well.

That didn't mean he was in the clear.

Luffy had to dodge and weave just as much - if not more - as his other two companions. "Dammit!" He snapped for what seemed like the hundredth time, leaping up into the air to dodge another blow from a larger-than-normal rabbit. Cynil was skilled in the art of "dodge", but the snow made her movements come less smoothly. She dropped to her knees, allowing one to soar overhead. She was quick to get back on her feet, knowing that staying stationary would earn her a swift strike from one of them. As she did, she felt a rumbling beneath them. That didn't sound good. Her head lifted, trying to make out what the source was. Up ahead, on what seemed like small cliffs overlooking where they were, quite a number of those rabbits stood. They began hopping up and down, slamming their full weight onto the ground, in an uneven sequence. Her face twisted in an almost nervous confusion. What were they hoping to accomplish with thi -...

It was when she watched snow fall down the top of a tree did she put it together. Cynil's head stared up at the top of the cliff far above all of them, and watched small clumps of snow drop from above. Oh. Ooooh no - she didn't think they had the intelligence for this. They had taken to using the vibrations to shake everything up and cause a damned avalanche. It woudlnt' work...would it? Another rumble, followed by larger snow piles answered her.

"Oh, damn it all." Cynil muttered under her breath, eyes darting around. She was, as per request, in the back behind Sanji. Luffy took the lead, and, fortunately for him, would be able to reach what was possibly the safest place for them despite the continued onslaught of the rabbits that still felt the need to keep them moving. Her eyes widened as she realized she probably wouldn't make it at all. The rumbling grew in intensity. Her head whipped around to find another safe place to be. The cliffside, once a dark brown, was now overtaken in white. Every spot she saw would keep her from feeling the initial impact, but would ultimately wind up with her being crushed under a build up.

Damn it all.

----

Zoro had begun walking aimlessly, sticking close to what looked like a road. He could see what was like carriage or sleigh marks along the ground, following a set path. Those would have to lead him somewhere, right? Then maybe he could get some damned clothes or something! His body gave an involuntary shiver much to his annoyance. Yeah, the whole "the cold is in your mind" thing wasn't really working out for him right about now.

He scanned his surroundings, taking in their details. Kind of - he was really just trying to find something he could focus on to get his mind off things. Sadly, nothing came up. "How long can this damn road be?!" He snapped, yelling out at no one in particular. He heard what sounded like hooves behind him and turned with narrowed eyes. He was met with the sight of a sleigh being pulled by some...weird....blue-nosed...reindeer? And there was some old lady sitting in it, too.

"What's some half-naked guy doing yelling out at nothing?" The woman questioned, raising an eyebrow. There was no sympathy in her eyes, more a passing curiosity that was dwindling at a rapid pace.

Zoro sent a glare her way, his frown deepening. "I'm lost, can't ya tell?" He retorted through chattering teeth, arms crossed over his chest. She returned the look with an icy one of her own. "You got any clothes in there I can use?" The question came out utterly neutral, eyes darting down to see into the floor of the sleigh. He was met with silence. Upon lifting his gaze to meet hers again, she was staring ahead.

"Chopper, let's get moving." She ordered, and the reindeer began to pull her back the way he had come from.

"Hey, what kinda person leaves someone stranded like this?!" He yelled after the sleigh that shrunk in the distance. He grumbled under his breath, turning with a huff and continuing on. So there definitely was civilization this way! But how close was it? Would it be faster to turn around and go back, head to where that old lady was? Nah, he'd best keep going straight ahead. He'd lose any progress he made, and then add some more time to his whole "freezing to death" thing he had going on. It was a problem he'd like fixed quickly, but it seemed it wasn't meant to be for the time.

Zoro kicked at a buildup of snow, continuing on his annoyed mutterings. "What kinda place is this? Has weird old ladies in sleighs with weird lookin' reindeer -" He cut himself off, head lifting up and staring off as he listened. He could've sworn he heard something... "-and they don't do nothing to help me out - I'm obviously in need here," He continued on. Whatever that noise was, they could figure it out. He wasn't in the mood for running off into the woods. Not until he actually had a shirt.

As his mind went back on the fact he was still, in fact, only wearing pants, the weather seemed to get even colder. Or was that in his mind, too? The air left him perpetually shivering, his fingers feeling stiff and numb. He'd lost feeling in his feet, having grown used to the burning-freeze as he continued on. His fingers and toes only just now started to seem to be going blue - that was good, right? Meant it took a long time for them to change color and so it'd take even longer for it to spread....right?

Yeah, that sounded right to him.

In a split moment Sanji had to think and decide their course of action. "Luffy, I'm trusting you to take Nami to the doctor and protect Cynil!" He called out, yelling to be heard above the avalanche that was swiftly approaching.

"What are you talking about?!" Luffy's eyes were wide in shock and concern as Sanji smirked, handing Cynil to him (and it was rather easy considering her small size) as he dashed into the fray of Lapins that were running towards them, slowly being overtaken by the avalanche themselves. "SANJI!!!"

"A man should be gentle..." he jumped into the air and drew his leg back in one swift motion. "With a lady!!!" Attacking the front line of oncoming killer rabbits, they started to pile up, slowly. "It worked!" But it only slowed down the inevitable, and Sanji blanched as the wave of snow was upon him--and then he was out like a light.

Holding onto both Cynil and Nami, Luffy managed to somehow keep them above the surge of snow as the avalanche slowly settled. Once they were sure it was safe to get back on the ground, Luffy helped Cynil to the ground, Nami still secure on his back as they all climbed down from the tall tree. "Are you alright?" he asked the black haired female, nodding once she confirmed her status before looking out to the newly-blanketed hillside. "SANJI" the captain cried out, not seeing their cook anywhere. "Come on, help me look!" He started dashing through the snow (ha ha ha) as he looked for blonde hair, his jacket, anything! The baby bunny that Sanji had kicked was whimpering next to a paw sticking out of the ground, and Luffy growled, walking over, and tugging the big Lapin out with ease, before moving on to continue looking for his cook.

Just as he found him, the captain turned to his last conscious companion. "Cynil, over here!" He yanked Sanji out, the man clearly unconscious and in need of medical attention. His crew members really were dropping like flies...! Luffy's face grew shadowed with regret as he looked at the cook's unconscious face. He had sacrificed himself for Luffy, Nami, and Cynil, and he didn't know what else to do except for to pick him up and carry him. Turning to the blackette, he blinked, his expression surprisingly serious for their usual lighthearted captain. "You can still walk, right? I'll carry you too once we get to the cliff face, but if you don't mind going on foot for now--"

Luffy was cut off as a loud shout sounded behind them, and he turned, his eyes widening as he saw some people he hadn't ever thought he was going to see again. "You! You tried to eat the Merry!"

"STRAWHATS!" It was King Wappol and his goons! Luffy looked about ready to fight, but Sanji's previous words rang about his head in a warning. Every time that he attacked or dodged... it might hurt Nami! Plus, he wasn't about to risk Cynil's life either. Wappol had been gloating about getting his revenge, and his archer shot at them and missed as Luffy jumped over the arrows. They weren't meant for Cynil so she was out of harm's way... for now. It was only a matter of time before something bad happened.

It only took Luffy a second to think about it before he turned around, shouting "RUN" on the top of his lungs. Wappol yelled incoherent things after them as Luffy barely managed to keep his hat on, checking out of the corner of his eye to make sure that the dancer was with him as they retreated. This was the only way to prevent Nami, and now Sanji's, conditions from worsening. Just as Wappol's men were going to follow after them, more of those large bunnies jumped out of the snow, cutting the king's men off as Luffy and Cynil made their escape. "The rabbits?" Luffy seemed to question to himself, looking back at them as the baby on the leader's back gave him a grin. Luffy found himself grinning as well before he put all his focus on the road ahead of them. "THANKS BIG WHITE BEAR-RABBITS! C'mon Cynil, a Doctor!! We need a doctor!!" That statement could have multiple meanings in Luffy's book.

"Zoro?! You idiot! Where'd you go?!" Julia was most definitely lost in some weird woods, and she couldn't even figure out her way back to the ship if she wanted to. Unfortunately she was beginning to think that the swordsman's bad sense of direction was catching up with her--she was for sure going to blame him for being a bad influence. That is... if she was ever able to find him. With the recently fallen snow, it was impossible to discern any kind of tracks regardless of type in the forest. "Where could he have gone? He certainly does a number on my already frayed nerves...!" The demoness was currently still wrapped in her blankets, but she was shivering more-so than ever, and she could slowly feel the energy draining from her body as she continued to wander the lonely woods. Had she been in a better mood, she might have found the scenery quite breathtaking, but the brunette didn't have enough time to sight-see. Luffy and Sanji already had enough to worry about without Zoro wandering off on his own. Hadn't she warned him?

"Maybe I should... take a break..." she mumbled to herself. Her fingers and toes were starting to feel numb, despite the winter clothes that Nami had let her borrow. Her breathing was more shallow, but she blamed the hill that she was currently walking down, nearly biting her tongue to keep her teeth from chattering. Leaning against a tree, the numbness from her fingers started to spread to the rest of her body, and suddenly the cold became more tolerable, but her mood and her lack of energy didn't get any better. Just when she felt her eyelids drooping, the sound of sleigh bells behind her caught her attention, though she didn't feel strong enough to turn around and see who it was. Hopefully they were friendly.

"Look what the cat dragged in, Chopper! More people with bad decision making skills," a weathered old voice sounded behind her, and the brunette's blue eyes narrowed slightly. She was going to go with a "maybe" on the friendly department. She felt someone's hand on her shoulder, though instead of turning her around, she felt it travel her spine in a practiced manner. She hissed as the--she assumed they were female--woman found the bruise that Miss Valentine had left from her 100 kilo smash to her back, and she winced, a hiss leaving her lips. "Damn, with this amount of damage I'm surprised you aren't ripped in two." That was comforting. Finally being spun around, surprisingly carefully, Julia was met with the old weathered face of a woman, and a sled being pulled by a blue nosed reindeer with a salmon-colored hat.

"I-I-I'm looking... for m-my-my friend..." Julia stammered, the words shaking with the shivering of her body. She felt as though she should feel the cold, but her entire body was going numb.

"If you're talking about the jackass without clothes, he's fine. I'm more worried about you," the old woman spoke plainly, her face turning grave. "It's been a good long time since I've seen one of your kind. No wonder you can still stand while having several crushed vertebrae." Julia's eyes widened--it was that bad?

"How did you...?" She also knew what Julia was, even by looking at her in her human form?

"Shut up and get in the sleigh." At least she was to the point. Julia was speechless as she was more or less shoved into the seat at the doctor's side. "Because your oni blood is nearly frozen, your body is confused on whether or not to maintain your internal core temperature, or to mend the wounds that you have. It looks as though it had started mending, but since you've been here it's been rerouting all of it's energy into keeping you warm." And it was failing, clearly. This lady didn't need to say it for Julia to realize it. "Come on--let's get you warmed up in my castle. Another hour or so out here and you'd be dead. Let's go, Chopper."

Julia faded in and out of consciousness as the landscape swept by, and she closed her eyes and succumbed to the numbness just as they neared what looked to be like a huge rope...

Despite all the chaos around, there was something about being passed along to another person that pulled you out of the sense of foreboding. Cynil could only blink, staring on as Luffy hauled her up. What? It had happened so quickly that she didn't quite process it at all. Of course, when she did catch up, the dread came back.

"Huh!? Wai - But -" Her eyes widened, head whipping over just in time to see the blond cook vanish beneath the snow. There was a part of her that was incredulous - saving her from getting hurt?! She was the best choice for taking blows due to quick healing! But she also knew that she had yet to explain this to any of them, so she had only herself to blame. She was pulled from her thoughts by Luffy, only able to nod as she hadn't heard a word he said. She didn't need to - it was obvious. Find him.

Cynil's head turned, scanning the area. All she saw was snow, snow, and more snow. She was trying to come up with a way to search efficiently, but let out a breath of relief upon hearing the captain's yells that he found the cook. She spun around, making her way towards them. Sanji was out, no telling when he'd wake up. Thankfully, he wouldn't bleed out - not-so-thankfully, he probably had internal wounds they weren't seeing. She couldn't help but cringe, a sense of guilt and nerves setting in. She probably should've told them; yeah, then this wouldn't be so bad. Hell, it was one of the things she could do that actually helped other people, and here she was sitting all safe to the side.

Climbing? Her head lifted. "I can -" She was cut off by yelling. She could only stare on in confusion at this...odd man's anger towards them. Wait - "tried to eat the Merry?" The hell was that supposed to mean? Though, now that she thought back on it, there was a loud ruckus and minor fight that she remembered Sanji going to see about. She had remained below with the navigator, and only listened to what she was told. This was the guy?

Cynil had little time to think more on it as the arrows flew. She turned and bolted, looking up to see Luffy. "Hey!" She called, one hand cupping around her mouth. Did this even work to help carry your voice? "I can climb just fine. You'll have your hands full with those two, you don't need another!" Ah, climbing. One of the few things that Deja had almost praised her over.

It was now a matter of getting there, though. The resistance before was annoying to deal with, but running in snow? She wasn't as fast as she'd like to be, but she still kept pace with Luffy and hadn't been hit by an arrow. Good enough for her.

Once they reached the cliff, she stared up. It was hard to even make out the top; this would be the longest climb she's ever attempted. Gritting her teeth, Cynil started tugging her boots off - she always did better with footwork and the like without them. The cold bit into her feet, sending her nervous system a jolt.

"I'm going to try and get up there first," Cynil said, rolling her shoulder. "Find someone for when you make it - that way those two get immediate attention." She flashed her usual, confident smile for a moment before her face set into a more stern expression. After folding the boots down together, she bit down onto them and grasped onto parts of the cliff that jutted out. She'd rather not lose her shoes; she couldn't really think of another alternative, either.

She set herself at a quick pace. Most of her climbing was jumping - more along the lines of launching - herself upwards as high as she could, latching back onto the cliff surface so she wouldn't fall, finding a stable hold, and repeating. It was reckless, it was dangerous, but it covered distance and cut down on time. In a situation where every second counted, she was more than willing to take the risk; doubly so due to the fact that she still did feel bad.

As she felt herself going far beyond being simply winded - her lungs were ready to burst, every inhale burning - she could actually make out the top. Her body felt like it got hit with a wave of adrenaline as she continued to pull herself upwards. She had long since lost her strength to continue her little "jumps" up the side, and now had to resort to the simpler methods. Her hand reached up, and nothing could describe the feeling as her hand met cold snow. It was almost like a sense of bliss, a "I did it!" feeling the trumped all others. A soundless laugh escaped her as she dragged her body up.

"H-" Her voice came out scratchy, a cough cutting her off. She felt as if she were about to throw up from the exertion she wasn't used to at all, but kept it down. "Hey! Somebody there?!" She called out, her voice echoing. No response. That feeling from earlier was now being replaced with a sick sensation in the pit of her stomach. "We didn't just - we need help!" No response. "Anyone?!" Her legs felt numb, refusing to move. She could only stare at the castle. She looked behind her - she could hear Luffy getting closer.

When she went to start yelling again, not giving a damn if she sounded like some kind of banshee hellbent on blood, a large figure approached in the distance. Her shoulders dropped, tension leaving them. Her hand, shaky and barely able to be lifted at all, pointed. "They're almost up."

*~*~*~*

Zoro had been wandering for what felt like ages now. He stuck to the road, and, much to his dismay, didn't come across a single person. What the hell?! Wasn't there supposed to be travelers or something?! All he got was some crazy old lady with her weird deer-thing. Some help she was - now he was stuck out in the middle of nowhere with no clothes and he was in a bad mood! Glaring off in the distance, his grumblings were cut off.

Was that...?

It was.

He darted forward without a care. He heard voices. Loud, panicked, but he heard voices! That meant people! And that meant there was probably someone there who could help him! His luck must've turned around because he noticed some buildings coming into view. Perfect, it was a town! They could definitely help him! He noticed two familiar figures in the distance. Yep, luck definitely, definitely turned around. Zoro veered right for them, coming to a halt at their side.

It was Usopp and Vivi, and they looked pretty freaked out, too. "Uh, what happened?" He asked, looking around. There seemed to be two groups of people: ones standing around, staring wide eyed at the other, and a bunch of guys with weapons in coats. Vivi and Usopp let out a shriek as they jumped, the latter managing to out-pitch the other.

"Zoro?! What the hell are you -" The two froze upon looking at him, silent. Vivi pointed, her smile concerned. "Uh, where are your clothes?" She asked, trying to sound casual despite the obvious awkwardness.

"Went swimming," He answered before nodding back to the situation at hand. "What's going on?" Usopp seemed to be pulled back into reality.

"Zoro!" He yelled. "You gotta help! Dalton is trapped under that snow, and they won't let us reach him to help!" The long-nosed sniper pointed a finger at the armed men.

"Dalton?" The name was soon forgotten as another thought took over. His eyes slid over to these "guys who weren't letting them help" and felt the corner of his mouth quirk up. "So what you're saying it...they're the bad guys?"

"Uh....yeah -" Without needing to hear any more, Zoro darted forwards. He didn't even bother drawing his swords - they wouldn't be needed on some guy like this - as his fist collided with the man's jaw. The man hit the ground immediately, actually sinking down a few inches into the snow upon impact. While that was satisfying, it was nowhere near as satisfying as how warm his jacket would be.

"Wha- Zoro?! You can't just go stealing other people's clothes like that!" Usopp yelled, horror apparent on his face.

Zoro arched an eyebrow, as he adjusted the sleeves. "You said he was the bad guy." He shrugged his shoulders. "Now, what's going on -" He was cut off with a few menacing stares from some other guys that seemed to be wearing the same outfit as the guy he just k.o'd. So it seemed to be some kind of uniform, huh? Meant there was some kind of organization to them, and they weren't just bandits or something.

"Right, so I'm not really in the mood right now," Zoro grabbed two of his blades, his eyes narrowing though he couldn't help the smirk. "Gonna have to end this one quick - no hard feelings." Truly. He didn't even know what the hell was going on, but, from what he could tell, they were opposing his crew. That meant they were just his targets now. There were a precious few of them; he was surprised that they were still causing problems for them at all. Though, as he glanced around, he didn't see Luffy or the others around. That meant that Usopp and Vivi got separated from them, huh?

It took so little effort on his end that he actually felt kind of bad. Their attacks were easily dodged, and their blocks were broken with a breath. The "fight" didn't even last for a minute before all of them were face down (or up) on the ground. "Now does anyone wanna expl -"

"Not now, Zoro, we gotta help Dalton!" With a sigh, the green haired swordsman trailed after their sniper. It took a little bit of time, but they came across a large man clad in green and pulled him out. He remembered this guy - he was leading the ones that had surrounded them upon docking here. His name was Dalton? He only remembered his face. He clutched at his side, grimacing as he attempted to stand on his own. There was a limp to his step as one eye was screwed shut and he heaved his breaths.

"Thank you," He lowered his head. He looked around, turned the best he could. "Where did they go? Are they gone?!" He stopped, eyes locking on some structure in the distance. As Zoro followed, he saw what looked like a large structure - castle? - in the distance sitting atop a weird looking mountain. How'd they even build that up there? Must've been hell, that's for sure. "Wappol must be on his way to the castle by now." Dalton glared up, lip curling back in a sneer.

"...What?" Zoro asked for what felt like the tenth time, trying to piece together everything. No one seemed to keen on explaining, though, much to his annoyance.

There was so much happening all at once that it seemed as though they were all in one mess of a conundrum. At first it was those rabbit things (that Dalton guy had called them... Lapin? Lapis? Luffy couldn't remember exactly so "rabbit things" would have to do for now) had attacked them, and now this Wapol guy was here too? He was someone Luffy had thought that he would never have to see again, and yet here he was. Luckily, the rabbit things seemed to block their path, and so Luffy was quick to thank them as he urged Cynil to run for it as they were given a brief period of time in which they could make a break for the mountain.

When Cynil called out to him above the sound of the swirling wind and snow, Luffy looked to the blackette briefly, before a grin appeared on his face at her confidence. "Alright--Good luck to the both of us then!" Luffy sprang forward as far as he could with his stretching rubber limbs, but after nearly dropping Sanji from a decent height (which probably would have killed him at this rate) he decided to just continue climbing as one normally would. The mountain was really more like a sheer cylindrical cliff face with a flat top, and it was a pain in the ass to climb--especially while carrying two unconscious individuals. Luffy refused to let that get to him, however, and the captain was determined to save every last member of his crew. Wether they were aware of it themselves or not, Luffy's resolution was steadfast and nearly unconditional--he was going to make sure his nakama fulfilled their dreams, one way or another.

Cynil by herself was a lot faster than him, and by the time he neared the top, his fingers were bleeding, blistered from the cold and broken from the harsh surface he had climbed. Throwing Nami and Sanji over first, he made sure that they were a safe distance away from the edge of the cliff face, and he sighed, seeing Cynil panting not too terribly far from where they had ended up. Nearly passing out from exhaustion, the strawhat male planted face first in the snow, but that particular snow started sliding towards the edge of the cliff. He had no more strength left to save himself, and he felt that he was slipping off the edge...

Chopper hadn't known what to think when they kept encountering strange people along the way. Sure they rarely visited the villages, and helped those when they needed it, so those rare visits were always... well, was fun the word he would use? No? Educational, seemed to fit more. Still, between the mainly naked guy, the girl Docterene picked up, and now all of these people who had seemingly climbed up the cliff face to the castle?! Just who were they? He walked up to the long black-haired female first to check on her--she seemed fine, just mostly out of breath. At her words, he turned and noticed the others, though the snow under the one male didn't seem to be sturdy. Was he...? He was falling! Without even thinking, Chopper was there in two heart beats, gripping the male's hand and pulling him and his two companions towards safer ground.

"What were they thinking, climbing up here so recklessly?" Docterene's voice came from behind them, and Chopper turned to see her checking on the young woman that they had picked up in the middle of the woods. "It would seem as though we've got our work cut out for us Chopper. You should start moving them into beds."

The reindeer with devil fruit powers nodded slowly, moving towards the one in the sleigh, but when Kureha stopped by the orange haired woman on the ground with such an intense expression, Chopper paused at her side. Neither Doctor nor Apprentice had noticed the one black haired male scooting closer to them until his hand gripped Docterene's ankle. Chopper looked up and nearly lost his breath, considering the intense look that was situated upon the male with the Strawhat's face. "P-Please..." he mumbled, his voice sounding tired. "Heal them. These people are my friends!" He could hold such a face for maybe five more seconds before passing out on the spot, soft snores coming from his figure. Chopper snorted. He would risk his life for his friends? Since when would anyone do that?

And yet... that intense look resonated with him, and he couldn't get it out of his mind. Something in his eyes told Chopper... that he had meant every word of what he had said. "Alright no use letting everyone die of hypothermia Chopper, get to work."

"Yes, Docterene!" He quickly began moving, taking the orange haired female in one of his large arms, and then the brunette who had passed out in the sleigh almost as soon as they had picked her up. He was mindful of her injuries, remember that Kureha had mentioned something about her having broken vertebrae? That didn't seem right--wouldn't she have been paralyzed? Of course, Doctorene had mentioned something along the lines of her not being human, so that probably played into it. He was curious to see what she was, but he knew that he and the Docterene had a lot of work cut out for them. He began to walk inside, listening to Doctor Kureha as she spoke to the last female.

The old woman walked over to Cynil, a calculating look in her eyes. "Do you need help too or are you just going to sit there?" Kureha had never been very good with people despite being a doctor, and although she did enjoy what she did, she also hated humans. With a passion. Most were selfish pieces of shit, but this bunch... they seemed to be alright. Not that Kureha would ever tell them that.

Cynil lifted her head, the rush and adrenaline leaving with every exhale. Crisis averted, it seemed. Well, more along the lines of crisis solved. She planted her hands on her knees, forcing herself to stand up. Her legs felt like jelly, and, upon straightening up, felt like they'd give at any moment. However, she was the least to be concerned with, and could easily get through this. "No help needed here, I'm just fine." She answered, brushing snow off of her pants. She pulled her boots back on. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a brown haired woman being hoisted over the large...thing's shoulder. She had to rub as her eye and squint, as if her eyes were betraying her.

"Julia?" Cynil asked, though she knew she wouldn't get an answer from the girl. "The hell is she doing here? She was on the ship." She shook her head. She was here now, it seemed - did something happen? She remembered those guys from earlier, the large man flanked by two of his subordinates. He seemed to not be too big of fans of the Strawhats, and, with that in mind, a sense of unease returned. Did...did the ship get attacked? Where was the swordsman?

She was forced out of her thoughts when the shadow of the older woman, the "Doctorene" as she heard, stepped up. "What's someone of your family doing all the way out here?" She was blunt, to the point. "You're all supposed to be a bunch of bastards sitting pretty in your kingdom." She arched an eyebrow. Right, her dad told her about his side of the family. If someone knew about "their" kingdom of Thailes, or about the royal family, they could point Cynil out immediately. The unnaturally vibrant color of their eyes dominated any other trait, the telling sign someone belonged to the Tisiphone bloodline.

"Never knew em'," Cynil answered honestly. "Grew up in the East Blue, as far away as my parents could get us. Did you know them?" While her dad hadn't told her everything, she knew enough. While a prosperous kingdom, the ruling family - the Tisiphone family - were known for their war strength, and they wouldn't hesitate to crush any who dared oppose them. Her dad had left that life behind after a series of events, forcefully taken in by a band of monster hunters or face treason and die. While she knew quite a bit of her father's "betrayal", she knew little of the place itself or anyone else.

Doctorene's eyes squinted in suspicion as she gave a hum. "I did, ran into a few of them a long time ago." She answered with a nod. "As I said, they're right bastards. Hope for the sake of your friends all you take after them is your eyes and 'exalt'."

It was that word that caused Cynil to pause. "Exalt"? The hell was that? Before she could turn and ask, Doctorene had already out paced her and was catching up with the big one carrying her frien- the crew. "C'mon, Chopper, let's get moving!" She ordered. "Get a big fire going, put the girl we found before in it. Those two -" She pointed to Luffy and Sanji and then down a hall. "-Get them in main patient's room, and put her -" now Nami, "-in the other."

"Yes, Doctorene!" Came "Chopper"'s reply as he marched off to do just what she said. Cynil stood there a moment, unsure of what to do with herself. After a mental debate, she began trailing after Chopper. Might as well see how they were all doing - she needed them to get her to where she wanted to go, after all. She watched Chopper enter a room before emerging without Luffy or Sanji. He then went into another, now leaving with only Julia over his shoulder. He seemed to avoid looking at her, and hurried along. Cynil watched him drop Julia off in another room just down the hall and nodded.

She entered into Nami's room, seeing the girl still sleeping. Doctorene or Chopper would probably be in here in a few moments to check on her; they might have questions as to what happened? She wasn't sure, she never spent much time in the presence of doctors. Cynil stared at the sleeping navigator before sighing. The girl's hair was tangled in a few places and looked a bit messy. Cynil walked over, running her fingers through her hair to work out said knots. They weren't too bad, and she herself would prefer not to wake up with her hair like this, so she decided to do her a favor. After this, she'd go check on the two boys and then Julia.

*~*~*~*~*

Zoro had waited patiently for an explanation. When Dalton was taken back to his home to rest, he had stayed outside rather than go in with Usopp and Vivi. Two were more than enough, and he imagined the place would start to feel pretty crowded otherwise. He stared up at the large mountain, tapping his foot until he heard the door creak open. He turned, seeing Dalton walk right out, trying to stand tall despite his injuries.

"Dalton, what are you doing?!" A concerned man asked, seemingly a militiaman. "You've gotta stay inside, you're still injured!" The larger man clad in green waved a hand, his face stern. He turned in the direction of the mountain with the building on top of it, determination in his eyes.

"Wapol is headed to the castle," Dalton said, his mind made up. "I will stop him there." With those few words, he began his march. However, he nearly doubled over after a few steps, clutching his chest and coughing. "Dammit!" He snapped under his breath, just quiet enough for the swordsman to hear him. His lip curled up in a fierce look, unwavering on the path he chose. Despite his injuries, he seemed dead set on making it to this castle.

With a sigh, Zoro made his way over. He grabbed the back of Dalton's jacket, lifting him up to the air with ease. The man made a startled noise, panicked before stilling. "Alright, tell me where we're going," He said, already walking on. "This'll be faster than you dragging yourself every step."

"While we cut most of the cable cars, there still is one left untouched." Dalton answered. Zoro nodded, going towards the direction he indicated. Usopp and Vivi followed behind him, the sniper never shutting up. So, they were kicking out a corrupt king from his own castle. Zoro chuckled to himself as he nodded - he liked the sound of that. Funny, in a way.

"So, no one did tell me what was going on." Zoro said, looking over towards his two companions.

Usopp paused, looking at him. "Oh, right - Luffy, Sanji, and Cynil took Nami up there," He pointed up at the top of the mountain. "There's supposed to be a doctor there."

"This Wapol was a terrible, terrible man who had-" Vivi was ultimately cut off, a group of men standing in their path. They didn't look hostile as they each held their weapons at their side rather than pointed at anyone. They looked like the militia of the place that the Strawhats had run into in the beginning.

They each saluted, their voices in unison. "We're with you Dalton! We'll fight Wapol off this island!" They shared the same determination that Dalton did, but to a lesser degree. What was most impressive about them was that you could see the unwavering loyalty towards the man Zoro held aloft in the air. They respected Dalton, and, from the looks of it, were ready to die helping him defend their island.

"Then let's get moving already, the thing we're looking for is this way, right?" Zoro interjected, continuing on. If Luffy and the others were up there, then something was definitely happening. He knew Julia woudln't be too pleased about missing out on it back on the ship, but she'd be fine after awhile.

Nami woke up slowly, feeling someone comb through her hair with their fingers. Still groggy, and half in a sleep-induced state, her voice was raw from not speaking for awhile. "N-Nojicko... Bellemere...?" As her gaze cleared, she remembered she was no longer a child, and the person calmly detangling her hair was the black haired dancer whom they had picked up in Loguetown. "O-Oh, Cynil, sorry." Slowly sitting up, the orange haired female rubbed her eyes. "Where... are we?"

"You'd best not move too much, you're still unwell." A voice said calmly, and the navigator turned to see an old woman who was pretty preoccupied drinking from a whiskey bottle. "You had a rare type of disease from an insect said to have been extinct for at least one hundred years. You're lucky you came here--I'm about the last person alive who remembers it and still carried an antidote recipe." She really was lucky. At this revelation, Nami paled slightly--so there were also things like that to worry about on the Grand Line, among many other problems. Not to mention she had missed a whole lot of ruckus on the ship, but that wasn't important now.

A crashing sounded throughout the halls and Nami blinked in surprise, looking towards the door. Just what was going on here? "What are those brats up to now?" Docterene asked, only opening one eye to casually glance out the door as well, taking another swig of alcohol.



Chopper had basically just finished tending to the large fire in the boiler room for the one injured girl. The Doctorene had yet to explain to him why that might help her, but at least this way she wouldn't die. He couldn't imagine what it felt to have a broken back. In his smaller form now, he was walking to check up on the two males who were in the main infirmary, but! They were both already awake! The dark haired one turned and they locked eyes. It only took a few seconds for chopper to shriek and hide, his body sticking out in the frame of the door awkwardly (he still needed to work on that whole "hiding" thing). m

"Meat!!" The black haired one got up off of his bed in excitement, dashing forward with a wide grin that could hardly be considered human.

"Luffy you can't eat it yet, idiot! Let me cook it first!" Sanji was up as well, now dashing forward, following after his captain. Letting out a screech, the poor blue nosed reindeer ran for his life.

"YOU STUPID HUMANS, I'M NOT FOOD!!!" His cries fell upon deaf ears as he ran forward, trying to outpace the cook and the captain as both males argued with each other while running. The one had severe frostbite, and the other had bruised ribs. How were these people humans? They were all crazy!

"Come here, sweet juicy meat!!" Luffy laughed carelessly as he ran, while Sanji growled at his captain's stubborn persistence. "I promise I just want to eat you!" Chopper paled, why would that sentence make him go closer to either of them?

As they began to catch up, he growled, "I said... I'm not... FOOD!" At this, the little reindeer turned into his human form, punching both Sanji and Luffy into the ground with a loud 'crash'. Panting, he didn't pause for long, continuing to run.

It didn't take long for everything to settle down, and Doctorene eventually told Cynil and Nami the story of Chopper and Hiraluck, the Doctor Pirate whose dream was to see the trees blooming on this desolate snowy island. As they sat, Luffy and Sanji continued to chase Chopper around the castle--that much was evident with how much screaming there could be heard echoing throughout the frozen castle. Nami felt sympathy for the reindeer--he was an outcast, kind of like her when she had decided to join the Arlong Pirates so she could buy Cocoyashi village from him, as well as her freedom.

At a lull in the conversation, the orange haired female turned to look at her black haired companion. "Cynil, how many of the crew are in the castle with us? And I feel like I experienced hell while unconscious. What's been going on?" She needed to be completely filled in to be fully comprehend not only their situation, but how on earth they were going to get to Alabasta quickly. After all, Vivi's country still needed saving, and the more time the wasted, the more dangerous this civil war became.

It was at that moment that Chopper's reindeer form rushed in, dark eyes hard and serious under the shadow of his hat. "Docterene! This is bad... Wapol is back, and he's trying to reclaim the castle!" The Doctor's eyes hardened, and she stood, following after her reindeer.

"Excuse me ladies, I have to go babysit. Stay here and heal up like good kids, okay?"



Julia's eyes fluttered open as fire crackled all around her. She could feel her bones stitching back together. How much longer would she have to be in here? Oh well, at least she could escape this heat fully healed. Though... looking down, her eyes widened. Her clothes had burned off! Groaning she held a hand to her face, hoping silently that no one randomly stumbled into the fires if for anything else, so that they wouldn't see her before she found something to cover up with. How embarrassing!

Cynil gave a smile down at the orange haired girl before she moved to taking a seat on a nearby chair. She crossed one leg over the other, resting her head in her palm as she let out a low whistle as they sat in silence alone in the room. "I have been roped into more these past few days than I have in months." She chuckled, shaking her head. "But your crew? I came here with your captain and cook. When I made it up top, I saw Julia as well, so I think something may have happened with the ship? I'm about to go check on her to see if we have another crisis on our hands." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Don't think any of us need that at the moment, but it definitely seems something's going on at this castle right now. Frankly, I'd rather us be off this island already, but that's more a personal bias against snow than anything else." She hated snow.

She stood, stretching her arms into the air. "Is there anything you need? I'm going to go see Julia, and then see what they're talking about with this 'Wapol' character - think he's got a problem with your crew. I should be back in...I'd say twenty minutes?" She didn't bother with worrying about this whole "Wapol" situation - it didn't really involve her, and she had a feeling that the other two, now that they were up and about, would be able to handle it. She could just sit back, and make sure everyone else was accounted for and doing fine; no need to actually throw herself into the fray.

With a small wave, Cynil departed from the room. She made her way down the hall, opening a door to where she believed Julia was. It had been the wrong room, and she quickly went to the next door. The raging fire inside was indication enough that this was the right one. Good, she wasn't too far off.

"Julia?" Cynil asked, looking about the room. She found a chair near the fire, but no occupant. As her eyes flicked back and forth, she finally noticed a figure in the inferno. She blinked, eyes widened a bit as she tried to focus. "Are...are you alright?" She wasn't entirely sure just what to ask. Or do, for that matter. Douse the flames? There were no horrified screams of pain, and she seemed to be moving a bit from in there. There was also the apparent lack of the smell of burning flesh or hair, but there was certainly something burning. She remembered Julia saying that she wasn't human, but a fire...oni, was it? "Do - do you, uh, need anything?" She asked.

It took a moment longer of trying to see the girl sitting in the flames did she realize one little detail. She couldn't help but chuckle. "You may be immune to burning, but it seems what you wear isn't, huh?" She tugged off her jacket, tossing it onto the vacant chair. "There - it runs a little long on Nami as well, so I guess think of it like a dress. Just...I don't suggest doing much jumping, and holding it down if there's a breeze, though." She adjusted her own shirt, a simple long sleeve that was also kindly donated from the orange haired navigator. "I'll see if I can find any pants for you." Cynil stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. She looked down both ends of the hall, trying to decide which way to go.

And thus her wandering began. Now, she never boasted about her directional talent; while she could eventually find where she needed to go, it was worse in large buildings like this. She had forgotten which turn she took, stopping mid step. She found herself in the main room of the castle, on the third floor. She could hear a commotion outside - a fight? That Wapol guy seemed to be causing problems. She descended down to the first floor, cutting along the center to make try and search the other side of the castle.

What was she looking for again? Oh, right, she was trying to find -

Cynil's thoughts were cut off by a hand grabbing onto her bicep, her head whipping around to see who it was. There was a moment of internal panic when she saw a hand, but the arm stretched out the front door - a clear 50 feet away from where she stood. She relaxed, remembering their captain was a "rubber" man. However, panic spiked again when she found herself being yanked at break neck speeds right out the door.

"I need to go get a jacket, I'll be right back, deal with these guys for me, thanks!" Luffy called out over his shoulder as he bolted back inside.

Cynil stood in silence, mind trying to catch up with what just happened. She...she had just been inside, and now she found herself standing in the "grand" outdoors, freezing (maybe she shouldn't have given Julia her jacket), confused, and apparently she had to -

"Wait, deal with who-" She cut herself off, turning to see that Luffy was nowhere to be seen. She looked back ahead of her, seeing the three figures that had tried to attack them at the base of the cliff. She stood there in silence, staring down her would-be opponents. "So..." She started, opening her mouth to continue but stopped. "Yeah, nothing's really coming to mind, sorry. Guess I'm supposed to - what - try to fight you guys?" She scratched her cheek, glancing between them. She wasn't so sure about this.

"You even know how to fight, girl?" The voice of Doctorene asked, taking another swig from her bottle.

Cynil looked over her shoulder, arching an eyebrow at the older woman. "I'll have you know, the last actual fight I was in was three years ago." She squinted, glancing away. "Maybe longer? I don't really remember."

----

After Zoro had managed to carry Dalton all the way to the only remaining car that led all the way up to the castle sitting atop the mountain. He leaned against the railing as Usopp and Vivi worried over how things would go over. The latter was more out of concern for those that sought to venture up to the mountain, and where they were now. It took only a few moments until they were ready, everyone stepping in as they were being raised into the air.

"Oh, Zoro," Vivi turned, looking over to him. "Is Julia out there?" She glanced off to the side, indicating where "there" was. Zoro gave her a dismissive wave, shaking his head.

"Nah, she's still at the ship with the duck." He nodded his head in the direction (where he thought) the ship was. "Left em' there to keep an eye on the ship."

Vivi gave a sigh of relief, closing her eyes. "It's good that we know where a few of us are, at least." She opened her eyes, lifting them up back to the castle. Her expression was hardened, determination in her eyes.

As they neared the end of their ride, Zoro could make out what looked like people standing outside. He squinted, leaning a bit as the others followed his gaze. Couldn't this thing go any faster? From his view, it looked like a fight. It was strange, though - the two large figures looked like the ones from the ship (the one that ate the ship seemed missing, however). There was a lone figure standing in their way, one of their people he supposed. They were smaller in comparison, and had impossibly long hair. They didn't really look like anyone that was a part of the crew -

wait, yes they did. He arched an eyebrow, leaning further to see if that would get him a better view. She didn't know how to fight, did she? That didn't really make sense. Why the hell would anyone put her out there against those guys?

It was then he twitched, clenching his jaw. If Cynil was out there, standing toe-to-toe with these guys who tried to break their ship apart, then that must have meant something happened to the others. Thankfully, Julia was still at the ship, and that cut down on one person he needed to make a mental checklist of looking for. For now, it was only really Luffy, that idiot cook, and Nami - he already found Cynil, it seemed, and she was doing well enough. For now.

"Hey, can't this thing move any faster?" He huffed, impatient at the meandering pace of the cart they stood in. They were almost there, but almost didn't cut it. Even though he was partially tempted to try and get across, he knew better - this fall, and him - what - trying to walk across the rope? Yeah, even if the cart was slow, it was faster than any alternative he could imagine. However, it was then another thought came to mind. "How the hell did they get up there if we're using this thing?"

Julia had almost fallen asleep, if it weren't for the sound of her name being called. Startled, she jumped to her feet, back facing the door, and covering up as best she could. Luckily most of the flames were blocking the more... sensitive areas. Luckily though, the voice sounded effeminate, and even better yet, it turned out to be Cynil. Julia and the female had bonded somewhat on their way here, and she respected the blackette and her drive for accomplishing her goals. That was showcased through her resilience in Little Garden, at least.

"Cynil! Uh, maybe don't come in? The guys mentioned you getting up after getting shot at point blank range, but I don't know how applicable that is to, uh... infernos." Her voice trailed off with a nervous chuckle. After all, she definitely didn't want to see the female hurt, regardless of whatever abilities she may or may not have (the brunette was still unsure what that was, but she was going to believe until proven otherwise that Cynil was definitely flammable). "Yes, I'm alright... thank you." Julia still hadn't forgotten Zoro's dumb ass and how he literally got lost right after jumping into the freezing waters by the Going Merry. Still... based on what that Kureha lady was saying, it turned out to be a good thing that she had been found, or she might have suffered some permanent damages to her spinal chord. So it was truly like a blessing in disguise.

She blushed nearly as red as the flames as Cynil chuckled at her current predicament, embarrassed but not having enough energy to stand up for her current state, or even talk to much for that matter. She could feel the fires heating up her core, restoring her body, and as she ate a little the process sped up. That being said, there was only so much fire she could handle before the need for real food began to grow--she couldn't survive on fire alone, despite how it seemed to be her lifeblood more often than not. "No, i-it really isn't..." she finally said, turning her head to look at Cynil through the licking flames. She watched as the black haired beauty took off her jacket and threw it onto the chair, silently thanking whatever powers that be for Cynil's kindness. "Thanks, I'll do my best to... heal up by the time you get back."

As Cynil left, Julia was once more left with her thoughts in the blazing inferno, and she let the jacket remain on the chair, making sure it wasn't getting incinerated so that she'd have something to wear once she left the fiery boiler room. "I hope I heal up fast..." she mumbled to herself, tilting her head from one side to the other.

Meanwhile outside where the fight was happening, the afro man (whom no one had bothered to learn the name of) had just attempted to throw one of those fuzzy balls of hair at Docterene. Chopper let out a sharp gasp, still in his Heavy Point after challenging Wapol, and promising to defend the castle, and the deceased Hiraluk's honor and sacrifice. He couldn't make it to her in time!

Luckily, Sanji was ready for the moment when it happened. Grinning with the cigarette butt in his mouth (the cancer stick nearly fully spent), the blonde haired cook froze in place, leg outstretched to kick the ball of fuzz out of the air--or at least it would have done so if it hadn't stuck to him. Ignoring that for the time being, he narrowed his eyes. "It's rude to aim anything at a lady..." he said darkly, his gaze flitting from the enemy in front of him to Cynil. He wasn't exactly sure what the female could do in a fight like this, but he knew better than to underestimate her. That being said, he would sooner eat his own foot than allow a lady as beautiful as she to fight all by herself. In fact, he'd probably never forgive himself if that had happened.

"So, you're getting better with manners, huh?" Doctorene smirked, still holding a bottle of liquor in one hand as she glanced at Sanji. "That being said, don't do anything rash. This little lady packs more of a punch than anyone here realizes..." except for herself, of course. But that was only because the "witch" knew Cynil's family tree--or at least knew of the power that those of her bloodline possessed, and it was nothing to scoff at. Some might consider it a curse, and others a blessing... Doctorene would have sooner labeled it... a tool, and the means to an end. She was curious to see how this whole fight played out.

"Hey, reindeer!" Sanji called over at Chopper, and the grateful anthropomorphic animal looked to him in shock, as the cook's quick reflexes had saved his teacher. "Help me get this thing offa me! What is it, static?"

"That's right, and their's more where that came from!" The afroman called out with a sick grin, flicking more fuzzballs at them, until both Sanji and Chopper were freaking out over the fuzz that had covered both of their bodies. Truly, it was an odd predicament.

"WAPOL!!!" Luffy's shout sounded from inside the building, running back out rather quickly. He had just run into Nami's room looking for a jacket, but the orangette had just told him to borrow her jacket. It looked a little... off... on Luffy, but it didn't matter, considering the fact that it was at least keeping him warm. Of course, Luffy would never change his shoes out of stubborn want to simply wear his sandals for as long as possible. His arm retracted back to him as he grinned widely, Wapol's shocked face making the rubberman's grin even larger. "I haven't finished paying you back for what you were doing to our ship earlier!"

"What... is he...?" Chopper asked, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked to Luffy in confusion and awe.

"A rubberman!" Sanji answered with a grin, turning to look at Chopper as they both paused on their current static-y predicament. "He's a real monster!" That seemed to give Chopper a bit of a stir--after all... wasn't being called a monster a bad thing? The cook looked to Cynil with his grin still on his features. "Sorry, looks like Luffy has dibs on the big guy. But I think we could use some help with static hair and weird lips!"

Cynil blinked, looking over her shoulder to Doctorene. Now, she wasn't against having a hype man - er, woman, but...To say she really knew how to fight wasn't...Well, she did, but it's been so long, and - and - oh, this could go badly very quickly. She was about to speak up, maybe ask her to tone down the ominous praise being thrown her way least she not meet raising expectations of her, but promptly forgot when the captain of the ship came blazing back into the fray.

"Oh, thank you I can get out of here," She mumbled under her breath. She wasn't incapable of fighting, but she definitely wasn't like Sol and how he naturally took to decimating his opponents. When she turned to scamper off back into the castle, leave this whole business behind, an arrow forced her to take a step back. Her head whipped in the direction it came from, seeing that strange man standing there, already drawing another arrow back. Just from looking him over, she could tell he wasn't a lousy shot - posture was good, but he seemed to be a more stationary archer than anything.

Cynil glanced over to his partner - their dynamic made sense now. One charged on in, making themselves a distraction. Once everything fell into place, and their enemy made the unfortunate mistake of forgetting about one, it was more than likely an easy victory. Almost flawless, if it weren't for the fact that they were currently outnumbered. Not to mention she saw openings in the afro man's attacks, and the archer would have trouble lining up his shots as well if he were put on the move.

Ah, what the hell was she going on about? It likely wouldn't be that easy.

"I'm...." Cynil awkwardly lifted her hand, pointing towards the large door. "I'm just gonna go. Don't need me getting in everyone's way, right?" Another step, another arrow.

"Sorry, but can't really let you do that," He shrugged. "Nothing personal, it's just the old crone said you had some nasty tricks up your sleeve, and we can't really let that run off unchecked."

"Sounds like we have quite the conundrum on our hands, don't we-" Yet another arrow was sent her way. She wasn't quick enough to dodge it, she knew that damn well, and chose to lift her hand and guard the shirt - she'd feel terrible if one of Nami's got a tear in it and a blood stain in it. The arrow head sunk past the skin of her palm, piercing through the other side with ease. "Look, I really don't feel like getting into a fight - it's just not really my thing, yeah? So how about I just run on inside, alright? I'll forget about the whole you shooting me thing too, alright?"

"What kinda descendant of the Tisiphone family are you?!" Doctorene looked taken aback, an eyebrow arched in her direction.

Cynil shrugged. "Remorseless ass-kicking isn't really in my interests."


*~*~*~*~*~*

Zoro impatiently tapped his foot, arms crossed over his chest. He grumbled under his breath, though knew that just staring and mentally willing it wouldn't make things go faster. He leaned against the side of the cart, huffing. There was a fight going on, and he wasn't going to be a part of it? Normally he wouldn't mind, but he was pissed after everything leading up to this moment and really wanted to take it out on something.

"Looks like we've got a bit of a ride ahead of us, huh?" Vivi spoke aloud, trying to relieve the tense silence that fell around them. Zoro raised an eyebrow at her. She had good intentions at least, trying to calm everyone's nerves before a big fight like this. Her attempts however, fell on mostly deaf ears.

When the cart finally slowed to a stop, Zoro was quick to jump out. His head head turned from side to side to figure out which way to turn. They should be to the...the left, right? So why the hell did everything look completely different than what he had been looking at?

"Zoro, wait!" Usopp called out. He went to jump out, but his foot got caught and he fell face first into the ground. Vivi followed after, hopping off the long nosed snipers back and approaching him.

"We're not there yet! We've got to find the path leading up and then we'll reach the others - don't rush on ahead, you know how you are with directions!" She snapped. The other militiamen helped guide Dalton. Zoro clenched his teeth, giving a huff, but ultimately held back and trailed behind Dalton's slow pace. It wouldn't take so long, and he knew the others probably had it covered. Nami was the biggest concern, and Julia - but she was still at the ship, so it was only truly the navigator.

"Cynil!" Sanji growled loudly, his eyes trained in anger on the archer for DARING to shoot an arrow at the small black haired beauty. Turning to look at Chopper, the cook was quick to pull himself away from the afro-balls, holding them in his hands. "Could you please make sure to take care of this guy? I need to help my friend." The reindeer merely nodded, already holding a rumble ball in his (somehow ambidextrous) hoof.

The nod of affirmation was all Sanji needed in order to dash over to help aid Cynil with the archer. "How dare you harm a lady?! Have you no shame?!" He tried to run up to the archer, but he found himself in a similar dance as Cynil had been performing earlier, arrow shafts sticking out of the snow in the places he had just been in previously. He had barely heard the conversation between the old docterene and Cynil, though what the old woman had said intrigued him. Sanji was quick to put himself in the way of the archer's volley, dark glare firmly set upon his features as he looked to the male with the weird lips that stood ahead of him. Without turning his head, he called back to Cynil. "Oi, are you alright? I know you have a healing factor, but that doesn't mean I want to see you riddled with arrows. This guy really needs to learn a thing or two about chivalry..."

"Oh, are you a knight?" The archer spoke with a mocking gaze.

"Not exactly, but for any fair maiden such as Cynil, of course~!" It truly didn't take much to pull Sanji out of his "cool personality" and back to the one that was women-crazy. Though he was quick to snap out of it once more as soon as more arrows began to fly. "You think you can restring those fast enough to take me on, then try it!" As Chopper used his Rumble Ball to fight the afro-haired man, and Luffy took on Wapol's Eating Devil Fruit abilities, Sanji and the archer went toe-to-toe, dancing out of each other's way just barely each time... this was getting nowhere, and fast.


As Julia heard more fighting from outside the castle, she groaned, hoping that Cynil hadn't gotten dragged into the mess outside before finding her some more clothes. She was forced to face the facts that her black haired companion wasn't going to return, however, and she bit her lip and gave herself an ultimatum as five minutes turned into ten, and then fifteen. She was feeling fine--better than ever, actually! Taking one last bite of fire from the blazing inferno around her, she cracked her neck before stepping out of the fire and towards the chair where Cynil's jacket was, thankfully free from the blaze. Picking it up, she was quick to zip it up, thankfully noting how it at least covered to her mid-thigh should anyone happen upon her in her hunt for clothes. They were in a castle, right...? Surely something around here would fit her... or she could find blankets and fashion some kind of toga from them! Yes...

Determined, the female left the boiler after first checking the hallway--the coast was clear! Feeling a sense of urgency, and her face red even though she wasn't transformed, Julia speed-walked towards the nearest rooms and began searching through them for clothes.

Her search wasn't going well, and the female had nearly lost hope when she came to one room where the fighting outside was particularly loud. "They must be right outside..." Julia mumbled to herself, her eyes narrowing as she bit her lip. Still, she checked every wardrobe for anything she could get her hands on, but she only found a wardrobe that looked to be for a little kid--even the jacket was tiny, and she sighed in defeat--there was no way that was going to do anything for her. Setting the items back where she had found them (she was no hoodlum, she knew how to at least fold clothes), the brunette was just about to leave the room when rumbling from outside caught her attention. Her eyes widened as a large mouth appeared and literally ate a hole in the wall. Gasping in shock as the man noticed her, he gruffly stomped in.

"This is my castle! What's a random chick doing in here?!" Grabbing her by the wrist before she could pull away, the female oni demon cried out in shock at the swift temperature drop as she was dragged outside after him into the snow. "Get out here, girlie!"

"H-Hey, let go!" She struggled--if only she could transform! But doing so would rip Cynil's jacket, and she was already mortified and absolutely freezing in her current state of undress, and imaging that had her face red and her body frozen in embarrassment.

"Hey Julia!" Luffy grinned upon seeing her as Wapol let her go, dropping her in the snow. She quickly stood, shaking the cold wet substance off of her body, as her captain tilted his head in confusion. "Why... aren't you wearing any clothes?"

From over where Sanji, Cynil, and Chopper were fighting, it was as if the blonde haired cook had an affinity for the worst timing possible. "JULIA-CHAANNN~" he cried out loudly, his nose starting to bleed in stereotypical anime fashion as he saw the female in the jacket that Cynil had previously been wearing. Snapping himself out of his stupor, he turned back to look at Cynil. "Y-You... you gave her your coat? You're so sweet! But here, take mine. Julia may be some kind of fire demon so I'm sure she'll live, but I don't know how much your healing factor takes in cold damage." Handing her his jacket, Sanji offered her a real smile (something that seemed rare, especially when some woman gave him the time of day he always seemed to desperately crave all of the time). "Can't have you freezing on me."

"HEY DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME!" Wapol shouted, making everyone jump. Julia ran back towards Luffy as now Wapol was in between her and the safety (and warmth) of the castle behind him. "BAKU BAKU FACTORY.... WAPOL HOUSE!"

And then he became... a house? Luffy was shouting very loudly about how awesome it was, but Chopper, Sanji, and Julia were all deadpanning, sharing the same internal thoughts. "How lame..."

"YES, FEAR MY SECRET POWER!" Wapol was shouting, laughing as he was incredibly pleased with himself and his abilities. Both of Wapol's lieutenants got incredibly nervous as the giant Wapol-House loomed over them, until the old king suddenly ate both the archer and the guy with the fuzzy hair balls.

"H-He's... eating them?!" Sanji shouted, taking a step back towards Cynil out of pure shock. How very... disturbing, to say the least. He knew that this weirdo king was a freak, but he'd never take him for going for cannabilism! He'd never experienced anything like it... the Grand Line truly was a place where anything was possible--both good and bad.

"W-what happened to his crew?!" Luffy shouted in shock, as even his thin black eyebrows were drawn together in a mixture of concern and confusion. After all, he couldn't even begin to process how someone would ever even think of eating their friends.

However, the door of Wapol's house opened, and out stepped the Afro guy and the archer, both combined into one being. Sanji looked to them, pointing, "didn't you just let him sit on your shoulders?"

"I wouldn't let myself underestimate them..." Doctorene spoke up from behind them, and Sanji turned in shock, almost having forgotten about her due to her relative silence throughout the fight up until now. "What? Do you really think they'd be weak if the villagers didn't stop them from taking over this country?" Sanji grunted at that, the old woman really had a point.

"What's that stupid fake doctor's flag doing at the top of my castle?" Wapol shouted loudly, catching the crew's attention! "It makes my castle look worthless!" As he spoke, he aimed one of his arms, which had turned into a canon, and it shot the flag of Hiryluk off of the castle. Luffy turned around to stare in silent shock, but Chopper didn't need to turn around in order to know that the offense had taken place.

"H-how..." the poor reindeer growled. "How dare you do that to Doctor's flag!!" He flung himself at Wapol, despite Doctorene's shout for him to stop and come back. Clinging to Wapol's face in his large human form, Chopper growled loudly, fist raised as if to punch the estranged king. "I won't hurt you!! But you must leave this country at once!"

"Chopper, what are you doing?!" The sound of Doctorene's shout had him looking back at her out of the corner of his eye. "Do you really think he's going to understand?! Men like him can't be reasoned with!!"

Chopper gulped, having the feeling that she was right, but before he could do anything about it, Chopper fell to the snow, the blast of a canon sounding, as a porthole had opened in the Wapol-house, shooting Chopper point blank. All while this was happening, Luffy had climbed to the top of the castle easily, putting the flag back in place. His face was stone cold, and angrier than Julia had ever seen him before. Her jaw clenched at his words...

"You're a bunch of frauds! You became pirates without preparing to risk your lives!! You'll never understand the real meaning of this flag!!" His yell was loud enough to be heard over the wind and the snow, and Chopper, from his spot on his back in the snow, winced, but he opened up his eyes to stare at Luffy in shock, tears working at the corners of his eyes. He... knew exactly what Doctor Hiryluk was about without having ever met him before... was this what true pirates were like?

"THIS FLAG!!" Luffy yelled as Wapol shot another canon blast up at the flag, easily deflecting it with his rubber body. "IS A SYMBOL OF FAITH!" Luffy never ceased to amaze the brunette--he acted like an idiot more than half the time, but he often understood the deeper complex emotions within other people, and that's what she really admired. "See? This flag can't be broken. I don't know who's flag this is, but this flag is a promise of life! It's not just a thing that anyone can play with!" His face was truly enraged, and Julia found herself unconsciously taking a step back. "A PERSON LIKE YOU DOESN'T HAVE A RIGHT TO DESTROY THIS FLAG AND LAUGH ABOUT IT!!"

Turning and looking to Chopper as he got on his feet, staring at Luffy in utter shock at his words, the rubber captain let a grin return to his features. "Hey reindeer! I'm gonna beat them up real soon! What are you gonna do?"

"We can still help," Sanji nodded, turning back to face the combined lieutenants of Wapol, and the man--house?--as well. "Cynil, is your hand alright?" Sanji was just now starting to feel the effects of the cold, but his concerned gaze slid over to where Julia was standing, freezing in... just the jacket... he struggled not to stare--they had more pressing things to worry about!

Chopper turned back into his normal form, turning to look at the combined lieutenants as they laughed. "Look at you, you don't have a friend in the world here..." the laughed in tandem, but Luffy's scream of rage from atop the castle had their eyes wide and lookup as a blinding flash of rubber flew at them.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! HE HAS ME! I'M HIS FRIEND!!!" Smacking into the two, Luffy grinned as Chopper freaked out.

"Are you okay, Strawhat boy?"

"I'm fine, because my body is made of rubber," Luffy chuckled through his teeth with his signature 'shishishi'. Turning back to look at Chopper once more as he stood, the captain of the Going Merry grinned widely. "Reindeer, you think you can handle that big guy?"

Chopper nodded after getting over his initial shock at Luffy's incredible powers. "Yes, that guy is just a weakling to me!"

"Great!" Luffy grinned, turning back towards the house-man. "Then it's a deal."

"Right, let's go!" Sanji yelled, about to follow, but he choked as Doctorene kicked him into the snow. "D-Doctor, w-why?!"

"Idiot," she sniffed, looking down at him. "Your spine nearly broke when you threw your captain at Wapol. Just ask the brunette, she should know." Julia sweated nervously as Sanji gasped in the snow in pain. "Speaking of which, what are you still doing here?" She turned and looked at Julia pointedly, but as the brunette opened her mouth, she didn't let her answer anyway. "Never mind, just be on backup in case Chopper gets hurt. I have faith that he can take Wapol's gooons, but what I don't trust is that scum to play fair. Tisiphone, watch over lover-boy here and make sure he doesn't move much until Chopper can take a look at him." Even in a tense situation, as a Doctor she was still great at giving out orders.

"Alright... let's finish this!" Luffy grinned, and Chopper nodded as they both raced forward towards their foes...

"Gomu-"

The battle between Wapol and Luffy had reached it's end. It was like he switched - the carefree captain of the Going Merry was gone, and in his place stood a stalwart ally to someone he had never met and he. Was. Pissed. His eyes, normally big and filled with an almost unending supply of infectious joy were narrowed and any trace of the mercy to hold back now occupied them. The left side of his upper lip twitched upwards in a snarl, and he stood hands clenched in fists.

"Gomu-"

They had busted the castle to hell, that much was certain. Okay, maybe not terribly so, but there would definitely be a hole or two that poor Doctorene would have to get fixed up later. Luffy's punches also left cracks in the walls from where they didn't hit their mark, each with force just shy of breaking through entirely.

"no-"

It was easy to tell that the ex-king was outmatched by how he couldn't get an inch on Luffy's never-ending onslaught of attacks. He was left stumbling away, desperately avoiding what he could, but then would be hit by another. He was left sputtering out insults and yells, that a mere commoner dared to lay a finger on him. Any words he had to say fell on deaf ears as Luffy continued.

"Bazooka!"

And that was how the once-king Wapol was sent soaring up into the sky. Luffy's arms had stretched back, and, point blank to the king, were sent flying back forward. The rubber-banding method caused both to crash into the chest of Wapol at terminal velocity, and he was gone. It was almost like blinking - one second he was there, the next he was gone. Luffy stood atop the castle, heavy breaths made visible from the cold. The bright yellow jacket he borrowed from Nami was tattered, and his knuckles were red not just from the cold. "Don't you ever come back here!" He yelled to the shrinking speck in the sky, snarl still fixed in place.

After standing there a moment more, glaring up into the sky at where he had last seen Wapol, his shoulders finally lost their tension. He worked to steady his breathing, turning to look down. He stretched his arms up, that anger from before vanishing and he was back to his old self. With a grin, he stood with a new goal in his sights - now to go get their new doctor!

*~*~*~*~*~*

Cynil had awkwardly taken to sitting with her legs folded underneath her. She'd really rather not, but she was tasked with watching over Sanji (what would she even do if he did decide to get up and go?), so she couldn't really just leave. And if Nami's clothes made her feel a bit childish due to them being a bit too long, Sanji's jacket made it even worse. He was one of the taller members aboard, only contested by Zoro.

She glanced around, trying to keep herself distracted from how she was literally sitting in the middle of a room, watching a tiny reindeer boy fight two guys in one body (She was ready to bolt the moment she saw that), and Julia ready to run in despite only being covered by a jacket that, fortunately for her, just barely reached to about mid-thigh, she saw three familiar faces show up. Not even a minute later, she caught the fall of that fusion disaster from the corner of her eye, the little reindeer (Chopper, was it?) stood triumphantly. Poor thing looked beat, but he still managed to win.

"Too late, such a shame," Usopp said, feigning his disappointment at the missed fight. "Too bad!" It was poorly masked.

"And this was all I had to - " Zoro froze, blinking down at Sanji on the ground. "The hell are you doing?" He shook his head, giving a muttered "idiot" under his breath as he kept walking. He continued to survey what happened, until he finally came across a familiar brunette - it was a surprise to see her here. "Wha - Julia? I thought you were on the ship?" He stared incredulously at her. It was then he noticed her state of dress; more accurately, lack thereof. He was quick to avert his gaze, coughing into his hand. "Why are you naked?" He asked, still finding something so interesting about the floor and all of its intricacies.

Cynil stood, brushing snow that clung to her pants off as she did. Vivi hurried to her side. "Everyone's alright?" She asked, worry in her eyes. "Where's Luffy?" The moment those words left her mouth, the captain came bounding in as happy as can be.

"Hey guys!" He grinned. "When did all of you get here?" He paused, looking confused. Before anyone could answer, however, he shrugged it off and moved on.

"I guess that answers that question," Vivi sighed, though she smiled.

Sanji huffed indignantly at what he had been reduced to. After all, how was he supposed to protect Cynil, Julia, and Nami if he was stuck on the ground like this?! Looking up at Cynil, he sighed in a semi-annoyed manner, but his gaze softened at the sight of her wearing his jacket. He was fine as far as the cold was--he still had his suit jacket and his gloves and ear-mitts, so he was good! Besides, he would sooner brave any cold in the world than see Cynil suffer and freeze! He grinned at the thought, in his weird dream-like head-space as he imagined a world where Cynil fell head over heels for him thanks to his kind deeds and suave manners!

"Oh Sanji, thank you so much for taking care of me! I'll be yours forever~!" Weird, totally not-canon head-space Cynil spoke, a heart in her visible eye as she rushed to him. He giggled slightly at the mental imagery.

Docterene stared down at Sanji as he chuckled to himself, face down in the snow. Raising an eyebrow, the 139 year old woman scoffed before taking another swig of the hard alcohol that she held in her hand. "Maybe we should get him inside, I think he's starting to lose it. Though I've never seen a spinal injury cause delusions like this..." Oh Doctor Kureha... that was just Sanji being Sanji. The other Strawhats were used to this behavior by now, although some tolerated the occasional weird action better than others did.

"Cynil, are you alright? That strange archer didn't actually hurt you, right?" Sanji asked, finally snapping out of his daydream. "I-I mean... as I stated previously I don't know too much about your abilities, but you looked really cool taking him on like you did!" In order to me closer, he crawled on his hands and feet a little snake-like as he looked her over for injuries. It was... a little disturbing, to say the least.

"BAHAHAHAHA SANJI YOU LOOK LIKE A WORM!" Luffy laughed loudly as he walked over, tears spewing from his eyes as he held his stomach. Honestly just about anything could crack the rubber male up, but this train of thought was not particularly pleasing to the cook.

Growling, the yellow haired male attempted to stand, despite his spine, almost spitting fire from his mouth. "DAMMIT LUFFY YOU TAKE THAT BACK. WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YOU, YOU'LL BE THE WORM! GEEZ EVERY TIME I TRY TO DO SOMETHING COOL!"

Luffy merely giggled and ran off to go annoy someone else as Sanji sighed, falling back into the snow just as Zoro, Usopp, Vivi, and Dalton and his militia men came upon the scene of the fight. Perfect (late) timing as always. Vivi laughed at Usopp's poor attempt at hiding his happiness that they had missed the battle between Wapol and his goons, while Sanji glared up at Zoro, singular visible eye narrowed in contempt.

"Oh yeah? I can still kick your ass from down here--come closer and try me, I'll finish what you started and bite your legs off," Sanji growled, more-so to himself and under his breath than anything else. Looking up at Cynil once more, he sighed, offering her a sheepish grin. "My dear, do you mind uh... helping me up?" He made grabby hand motions towards her, his back still not fully responding to him.

Julia turned to look at the new comers, her expression quickly becoming irritated as she looked to him. "You idiot! Why'd you go and make me worry about you and here you are, perfectly fine?! What were you thinking, diving into the frozen lake and then disappearing?" She growled, punching his shoulder with half-force, knowing it might sting a little (and hoping it did, to be honest. "I went wandering in the woods for you! That Doctor said I might have died, are you happy?!" As he spoke about her current state of undress, she felt her face immediately heat up in embarrassment. The gentle falling snow around them started to melt, as well as the snow under her feet as she became more embarrassed. "I-I'm not naked!! I just... I'm wearing a coat, okay?!" Though it was... admittedly not doing much to help her case. Sighing heavily, she held the bridge of her nose in contempt as she tried to calm herself down.

"Woah, Jules are you okay? Y-you're sinking!" Usopp cried out, throwing his hands into the air in shock as Julia indeed sank slightly into the snow. "Y-you must be overheating...!"

Julia yelped slightly in surprise, the brunette latching onto the closest person as she was up to her shins in the snow, where she had previously been okay to stand directly on top of. The closest person, however, just so happened to be the awkwardly-shuffling Zoro. "H-help!!" Her coat was steaming as she became more embarrassed, not threatening to catch fire, just her hands, her everything was really warm from her embarrassment.

Doctor Kureha stood next to Chopper as they watched all of the crew members argue and exchange loud words, and she could only chuckle as Chopper looked on with wide, curious eyes. "Pirates these days are so obnoxious..."

"Pirates... hmm..." Chopper tilted his head slightly.

"HEY REINDEER!" Luffy's call startled the little guy. "JOIN MY CREW. BE A PIRATE!"

Chopper looked shocked for a hot second before his face became angry. "W-WHY WOULD I JOIN YOUR STUPID PIRATE CREW?! LEAVE ME ALONE! AHHHH!!" And with that, he took off, Luffy chasing after him, shouting at him to join the Strawhat pirates despite Chopper's denials.